Israel’s War Against Palestine: Documenting the Military Occupation of Palestinian and Arab Lands

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Bashir Abu-Manneh: Revolt in Egypt

10 February 2011

IOA Advisory Board member Bashir Abu-Manneh speaks about current events in Egypt.

Gideon Levy: The Middle East does not need stability

10 February 2011

The stability in the region, something which Westerners and Israelis have come to yearn, merely means perpetuating the status quo. That situation might be good for Israel and the West, but it is very bad for the millions of people who have had to pay the price. Maintaining Mideast stability means perpetuating the intolerable situation by which some 2.5 million Palestinians exist without any rights under the heel of Israeli rule; and another few million Palestinian refugees from the war of 1948 are living in camps…

Lisa Hajjar: Suleiman – the CIA’s man in Cairo

10 February 2011

On January 29, Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s top spy chief, was anointed vice president by tottering dictator, Hosni Mubarak. By appointing Suleiman, part of a shake-up of the cabinet in an attempt to appease the masses of protesters and retain his own grip on the presidency, Mubarak has once again shown his knack for devilish shrewdness. Suleiman has long been favoured by the US government for his ardent anti-Islamism, his willingness to talk and act tough on Iran – and he has long been the CIA’s main man in Cairo.

Richard Falk: Egypt’s Berlin Wall moment

10 February 2011

It remains unknown what is meant by – and what will happen during – an ‘orderly transition’ under the auspices of temporary leaders closely tied to the old regime, who likely enjoy enthusiastic backing from Washington. Will a cosmetic agenda of reform hide the reality of the politics of counterrevolution? Or will revolutionary expectations come to the fore from an aroused populace to overwhelm the pacifying efforts of ‘the reformers’? Or, even, might there be a genuine mandate of reform, supported by elites and bureaucrats – enacting sufficiently ambitious changes in the direction of democracy and social justice to satisfy the public?

Peter Hallward: Egypt’s popular revolution will change the world

10 February 2011

In discovering their power to determine their future, north Africa’s protesters have already opened a new age in world history.

WikiLeaks: Israel’s secret hotline to the man tipped to replace Mubarak

7 February 2011

The new vice-president of Egypt, Omar Suleiman, is a long-standing favourite of Israel’s who spoke daily to the Tel Aviv government via a secret “hotline” to Cairo, leaked documents disclose.

IOA Editor: The implications on the continuation of the Gaza siege are only too obvious. Another reason to oppose the US-lead efforts to limit the change of government in Egypt.

A statement from the protesters at Cairo’s Tahrir square to the Egyptian people

7 February 2011

We the protesters who are currently on sit-in at Tahrir (liberation) square in Cairo since January 25, 2011 strongly condemn the brutal attack carried out by the governing National Democratic Party’s (NDP) mercenaries at our location … under the guise of “rally” in support of President Mubarak… We regret that some young people have joined these thugs and criminals, whom the NDP is accustomed to hire during elections, to march them off after spreading several falsehoods circulated by the regime media about us and our goals. These goals that aim at changing the political system to a one that guarantees freedom, dignity and social justice to all citizens are also the goals of the youth. Therefore we want to clarify the following.

Jerusalem set to approve contentious Jewish housing in Arab neighborhood

7 February 2011

The Jerusalem Municipal Committee for Planning and Building is expected to approve today the construction of two buildings that will include 13 apartments for Jewish residents in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Backing the plan are settler organizations who currently occupy three homes in the neighborhood. Following the plan’s approval, it will be necessary to evict a number of Palestinian families living on the site in order for construction to commence.

Pratap Chatterjee: Egypt’s military-industrial complex

4 February 2011

With US-made tear gas canisters fired on protesters in Cairo, Washington’s role in arming Egypt is under the spotlight.

Noam Chomsky: It’s not radical Islam that worries the US – it’s independence

4 February 2011

The nature of any regime the US backs in the Arab world is secondary to control. The dictators support us. Their subjects can be ignored – unless they break their chains, and then policy must be adjusted.

Egypt unrest spurs Palestinian Authority to pledge elections

4 February 2011

Spurred by the events in Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and its ruling Fatah party also promised to hold local elections, followed by general elections, very soon… The PA was supposed to hold local elections last July, but Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s government decided unexpectedly to postpone them, and effectively to cancel them.

Noam Chomsky: “This is the most remarkable regional uprising that I can remember”

3 February 2011

A Democracy Now! interview on events in Tunisia and Egypt, and their background: Mubarak, peace and stability, the history of US involvement in the Middle East, the US military industrial complex, WikiLeaks, and more.

Robert Fisk on Egypt

3 February 2011

Amy Goodman interviews Robert Fisk, who is in Cairo, on Democracy Now!

Juan Cole: Mubarak defies a humiliated America, emulating Netanyahu

3 February 2011

Mubarak is taking his cues for impudence from the far rightwing government of Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu, which began the Middle Eastern custom of humiliating President Barack Obama with impunity… Israel was founded on the primal sin of expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in what is now Israel, and then conniving at keeping them stateless, helpless and weak ever after… The policy of the United States has been for the most part to accommodate this Israeli policy and to collaborate in the maltreatment of the Palestinians.

Amira Hass: When Israel’s protective net of tyranny tears

2 February 2011

The Israeli-made machinery of [occupation] repression has learned how to manufacture a protective net in the form of the Palestinian Authority. It does all it can not to upset the order of things, so no match will be lit that blows up the mirage of economic prosperity and the construction of national institutions.

Bashir Abu-Manneh: What’s Happening in Egypt?

31 January 2011

IOA Advisory Board member Bashir Abu-Manneh speaks about current events in Egypt.

Peres: Israel has great respect for Egyptian president

31 January 2011

President Shimon Peres has not abandoned his old friend Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. “We always have had and will have great respect for President Mubaraek. Not everything he did was right, but he did do one thing for which all of us are thankful. He was the peace keeper of the Middle East,” Peres [said].

Jonathan Cook: Can the Palestinian Authority survive?

31 January 2011

PASSIA director Mahdi Abdul Hadi: “It is now much clearer to Palestinians that they are living in a prison and that the PA leaders are there only to negotiate the terms of our imprisonment.”

Janan Abdu: Israel’s human rights abuses in the name of security

31 January 2011

My husband and other Palestinian prisoners are being denied basic rights and subjected to harsh treatment in detention.

Amnesty: Palestinian human rights activist jailed in Israel

31 January 2011

Amnesty International: “Ameer Makhoul is well known for his human rights activism on behalf of Palestinians in Israel and those living under Israeli occupation. We fear that this may be the underlying reason for his imprisonment. We are also extremely concerned by allegations that he was tortured and otherwise ill-treated following his arrest on 6 May last year in a dawn police raid on his home in Haifa, by the fact that he was not permitted to see his lawyers for 12 days after his arrest, and by the gag order that prohibited media coverage on the case during this time.”

Chris Hedges: What corruption and force have wrought in Egypt

30 January 2011

The failure of the US to halt the slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel has consequences. The failure to acknowledge the collective humiliation and anger felt by most Arabs because of the presence of US troops on Muslim soil, not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but in the staging bases set up in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, has consequences. The failure to denounce the repression, including the widespread use of torture, censorship and rigged elections, wielded by our allies against their citizens in the Middle East has consequences. We are soaked with the stench of these regimes.

Ameer Makhoul jailed for nine years

30 January 2011

The Haifa District Court on Sunday sentenced Israeli Arab activist Ameer Makhoul to nine years in prison and another year suspended sentence for charges of spying and contact with a foreign agent from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant organization.

Arab Israelis back Egyptian protestors

29 January 2011

Former Israeli MP Issam Makhoul: “Now, a new Middle East had truly been born. The struggle aims to return the government in these states to their peoples… We are not indifferent to this struggle and we aren’t neutral. We urge the Egyptian people to resist the weak regime, which was associated with American imperialism and its regional interests.”

MERIP: Dead-Enders on the Potomac

29 January 2011

The US will stand by its favored authoritarian Arab states until the bitter end… The reasons for this stance have changed little over the decades since the US became the superpower in the Middle East. Strategic interest number one is the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf to the world economy, unimpeded by a rival hegemon or a regional upstart that might raise prices dramatically or deploy the oil weapon to extract political concessions from the West. Number two is the security of Israel. But third … is the stability of satrapies that Washington can trust to safeguard its other interests and initiatives, whether the US-sponsored “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinians (and the blockade upon Hamas that Egypt helps to enforce) or the campaign to curtail Islamist movements…

Erekat: US, British citizens are responsible for leaking Palestine papers

26 January 2011

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Wednesday in an interview with the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television that a U.S. citizen, who worked in the U.S. State Department, and a British citizen, a former MI6 and EU official, are the ones responsible for leaking the so-called ‘Palestine papers.’

Ma’aleh Adumim mayor demands Netanyahu build West Bank corridor immediately

26 January 2011

Ma’aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kasriel has demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explain reports that he had secretly promised the US that Israel would not build new neighborhoods in E1, a controversial area which connects Jerusalem to the nearby settlement.

‘Demolition of Palestinian homes in West Bank’s Area C tripled in 2010′

26 January 2011

A B’Tselem report reveals that as a result, 472 Palestinians, including 223 minors, lost their homes last year, up from 217 – including 60 minors – in 2009.

Amira Hass: The real Palestinian concession

26 January 2011

Both Palestinian rivals know how to use the resilience and creativity of their people in the face of the daily torture that is foreign rule. But they do not help translate this personal and collective stamina into a strategy of unarmed popular struggle.

The Palestine Papers: Summary

25 January 2011

A summary of important articles and documents covering revelations of The Palestine Papers.

Al-Jazeera: The Palestine Papers (videos)

25 January 2011

A selection of video reports from Al-Jazeera’s comprehensive coverage of the leaked Israeli-Palestinian negotiations documents.

Jonathan Cook: Palestine Papers confirm Israeli rejectionism

25 January 2011

The “Palestine Papers” demand a serious re-evaluation of two lingering, erroneous assumptions made by many Western observers: 1) the US’ self-proclaimed role as honest broker; 2) the assumption that peace talks have fallen into abeyance chiefly because of the election nearly two years ago of Netanyahu’s rightwing Israeli government. The Americans’ goal was to strong-arm him into bringing into his coalition Tzipi Livni who is widely regarded as the most credible Israeli advocate for peace. However, Livni, previously Mr Olmert’s foreign minister, emerges in the leaked papers as an inflexible negotiator, dismissive of the huge concessions being made by the Palestinians.

IOA Editor: Indeed, as we’ve said since the release of The Palestine Papers.

Alistair Crooke: Misunderstanding Israeli motives

24 January 2011

Livni to Ahmed Qurei and Saeb Erekat: “Israel was established to become a national home for Jews from all over the world. The Jew gets the citizenship as soon as he steps in Israel, and therefore don’t say anything about the nature of Israel… The basis for the creation of the state of Israel is that it was created for the Jewish people. Your state will be the answer to all Palestinians including refugees. Putting an end to claims means fulfilling national rights for all.”

The Guardian: Palestinian leaders weak – and increasingly desperate

23 January 2011

Al-Jazeera TV , the Guardian: PA agreed to concede almost all of East Jerusalem to Israel, accept Israeli demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and much more.

At a meeting in November 2007, [Livni] told Qureia that she believed Palestinians saw settlement building as meaning “Israel takes more land [so] that the Palestinian state will be impossible”; that “the Israel policy is to take more and more land day after day and that at the end of the day we’ll say that is impossible, we already have the land and we cannot create the state”. She conceded that it had been “the policy of the government for a really long time”.

IOA Editor: US-backed Israeli rejectionism, delivered by Tzipi Livni — generally regarded as Israel’s “more flexible” opposition leader. [Ha!] Nothing that we didn’t already know, other than the details on the specific Palestinian concessions. Even more interesting is Qureia’s March 2008 comment to Condoleezza Rice “You bring back life to the region when you come.” After Israel’s mass killing campaign in Lebanon and the US slaughter Iraq, it would have been far more accurate to state “you bring death to the region.”

The Guardian: Secret papers reveal slow death of Middle East peace process

23 January 2011

Al-Jazeera TV , the Guardian: PA agreed to concede almost all of East Jerusalem to Israel, accept Israeli demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and much more.

Chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat: “This is the first time in Palestinian-Israeli history in which such a [concession] is officially made.” … But the offer was rejected out of hand by Israel because it did not include … Ma’ale Adumim as well as Har Homa and several other [settlements] deeper in the West Bank, including Ariel. “We do not like this suggestion because it does not meet our demands,” Israel’s then foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, told the Palestinians.

IOA Editor: US-backed Israeli rejectionism, delivered by Tzipi Livni — generally regarded as Israel’s “more flexible” opposition leader. [Ha!] Nothing that we didn’t already know, other than the details on the specific Palestinian concessions.

MK Zoabi: I was not summoned by Turkel Commission

23 January 2011

MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) who was onboard the Marmara making its way to the Gaza Strip said on Sunday she was not summoned to testify by the Turkel Commission. “The commission purposely and intentionally failed to summon the civilian and the only witness to see what happened out of fear her testimony would damage the harmony of the report,” she said.

“The report is a scanty version of the official Israeli version. The report cannot clear Israel’s image as a serial international law breaker,” Zoabi added.

MORE on the Turkel Commission whitewashing Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmara

Amira Hass: IDF soldier claims wrong information led to Gaza family’s deaths

23 January 2011

Imad Samouni: I know Hebrew and I told the family not to worry because Jews have better hearts than we do, I worked with them for 10 years. They tied us up… There were 46 of us… “The soldiers passed among us, made our home into their hostel… [The shackles] hurt me terribly and my fingers swelled. A soldier tried to open them but couldn’t, and only made them tighter. My wife cried that they hurt me. He brought scissors and cut down to the flesh to open them. My wife cried… And I’m a man, I told them not to cry, and he brought new plastic ties. We stayed that way from Sunday to Monday…