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Thread: :icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

  1. #121
    The BBC News Website looks at case studies of some of the weapons and tactics used in the recent Gaza conflict that human rights groups are concerned may have been violations of international law.

    Interviews by Aleem Maqbool and Heather Sharp in Gaza City.


    GENERAL ALLEGATIONS

    Human rights investigators have been trawling through the rubble in Gaza and gathering testimonies in an attempt to piece together a picture of the way both sides fought and the weapons they used.

    International law demands that a distinction is made between combatants and non-combatants, and civilian casualties proportionate to the military gains from the attack in which they occurred.

    But Amnesty International has concluded that some Israeli attacks "were directed at civilians or civilian buildings", while "others were disproportionate or indiscriminate".

    Dinstinctive white phosphorus shell bursts in Gaza
    Amnesty has dubbed Israel's use of white phosphorus as a war crime
    As well as the way Israeli forces used white phosphorous in the conflict, which Amnesty has dubbed a war crime, the organisation has also raised concerns about other weapons and their use.

    These range from the firing of high explosive artillery shells, which have a large margin of error, in populated areas, to concerns that Israeli forces were trigger-happy in their use of more precise weapons such as tank shells.

    There has never been any doubt that Palestinian militants' use of rockets to target civilians in southern Israel was a violation of international humanitarian law.

    Human rights investigators are also certain that the militant groups operated from civilian areas, although Amnesty and HRW are yet to publish detailed reports on the issue.

    "The testimony and forensic evidence clearly shows Hamas was endangering the civilian population with its tactics," says Marc Garlasco, a senior researcher and military specialist with Human Rights Watch.


    The violations of one side do not allow the other side to fight in an illegal manner
    Marc Garlasco, Human Rights Watch
    He says there were cases of Hamas firing from abandoned Palestinian homes.

    "I myself saw Qassam rockets rise up from populated areas, likely fired from between homes," he adds.

    Israel says the blame for civilian casualties lies with Hamas for using such tactics.

    But Mr Garlasco - echoing the views of several other human rights groups - says this "in no way justifies what Israel did".

    "The violations of one side do not allow the other side to fight in an illegal manner."

    Israel has not yet responded to the specific allegations, but says it acts to minimise civilian casualties, and that its interpretation of international law is in line with that of other Western nations.

    The Israeli military also says it is conducting internal investigations into some of the claims and individual cases, including regarding the use of white phosphorous, that rights groups have raised.

    Back to the top

    FLECHETTE SHELLS

    Flechettes recovered after fatal attack on Wafa Abu Jarad
    Muhammad Abu Jarad still has a flechette lodged close to his spine
    Flechette shells contain several thousand razor-sharp, nail-like metal darts, each about 4cm long.

    The shells explode in the air scattering the darts over the surrounding area - in a cone-shaped pattern 300m long and 90m wide, according to Human Rights Watch.

    They are not banned under international law, but human rights groups say their indiscriminate nature makes them illegal if used in built-up civilian areas such as the densely populated Gaza Strip.

    Although they were not widely used by Israeli forces in the Gaza conflict, Amnesty International has documented several incidents and says their use "contributed to unlawful killings" of Palestinian civilians.

    The black darts can still be seen in the walls above the spot where Wafa Abu Jarad, aged 21 and three months pregnant, was fatally injured on 5 January 2009, outside their home on a residential street near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza .

    Her husband Muhammad, 24, said they had just had breakfast on the steps of their home, with their two-year-old son Khalil, and were walking among the lemon trees in their garden when they heard an explosion a few blocks away.

    As they ran for cover in the house, Wafa with Khalil in her arms, there was another explosion above them. "All we could see were nails," said Muhammad, in reference to the flechettes.

    "We were both thrown to the ground. She was bleeding from her head and chest," he said. "She fell unconscious immediately."

    Muhammad Abu Jarad holding a photo of his dead wife, with Khalil, aged 2
    Young Khalil Abu Jarad has not yet been told his mother died in the attack

    Flechettes hit Khalil in the legs, Muhammad in the leg and back, and flew through the open door hitting Muhammad's father in the shoulder, he said.

    Wafa died in hospital three days later.

    The clean white line of a flechette can be seen close to a vertebrae on an X-ray of Muhammad's back. He says he cannot sleep because of the pain, and sometimes finds his right side temporarily paralysed.

    "The doctors are afraid to take it out, it is too close to the nerve - they are afraid I could be completely paralysed," he says, as Khalil clings to his leg and breaks briefly into a howl.

    "What can I tell him when he cries 'Mummy, Mummy'?", he asks. "Where am I supposed to bring his Mum from?"

    He tells the toddler Wafa is "travelling". "But yesterday he picked up a picture of her, and was saying 'Mummy, Mummy' and kissing it. He said she had been hurt in the explosion."

    In similar cases, Amnesty International has documented the death of a 16-year-old boy, another woman and a paramedic, and numerous more injuries.

    Israel has used flechette shells in Gaza for several years. In 2003 Israel 's High Court rejected a petition to ban their use, saying it considered the military's guidelines on their use to be adequate.

    Back to the top
    TANK SHELLS

    The Amnesty report says "tank rounds are precision munitions".

    "The killing of so many civilians, many in their homes, indicates that these munitions were, at best, used in a reckless or indiscriminate manner," says the report.

    Haider al-Eiwa
    Haider al-Eiwa cannot understand why his house was hit
    Human Rights Watch military analysts say tank shells are so accurate they can be fired into a window from a distance of a mile (1.6km).

    Both Amnesty and HRW investigators say there appeared to be a consistent pattern of Palestinian families being killed by Israeli tank shells fired into their homes, apparently as they approached windows or stepped on to balconies. Haider al-Eiwa, 42, walks through the ruins of his family's top floor apartment in the eastern part of Gaza City .

    Everything in the living room, dining room and kitchen has been reduced to a mangled, dusty mess.

    A few weeks ago, he says, four of his children, aged between seven and 13, were playing by the kitchen window, looking out towards the Israeli border.


    KEY STORIES

    'Phosphorus wounds' alarm Gazans
    Who can probe war crimes claims?
    Gaza conflict: Timeline
    Gaza conflict: Who is a civilian?

    He says that, without warning, a tank shell crashed straight through the same window, killing his wife, and all four children.

    "Of course they played near the windows, they are children," Haider says. "And the tanks were well over a kilometre away.

    "They have destroyed my life. Why did they choose my house?" he says. "I am not Hamas, I don't belong to any group. They must have known there were children here."

    Marc Garlasco of Human Rights Watch says: "I saw dozens upon dozens of homes damaged or destroyed by tank fire and our investigation noted numerous civilians killed in these cases."

    "Though we don't know why they were killed, the Israeli army may have thought they were spotters for Hamas," says Mr Garlasco.

    It seems that in some cases, Israeli forces were "looking through the vision system, firing at anything they saw moving", says Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International.

    In another such case, cited by Amnesty, the house of Dr Izz al-Din Abu al-Eish was hit. A tank shell was fired into his daughters' bedroom. Three of his daughters and his niece were killed.

    Back to the top

    DRONE MISSILES

    An Israeli pilotless aircraft or drone (top right) flies over Gaza (15/01/09) as a helicopter fires flares
    Unmanned drones (one visible, top right) were used extensively by Israel over Gaza

    Marc Garlasco of HRW says there is concern about the number of Palestinian civilians killed by missiles fired from unmanned Israeli aircraft, or drones, particularly because these can be precisely targeted and guided by an operator using imaging "like a TV camera" as they home in on their target.

    In several cases, children were killed as they played on roofs, despite the fact that the operator should have been able to determine they were civilians and steer the missile away, he says.

    "It appears there was this wider policy to kill anyone on a roof," he said.

    Furthermore, investigators found that many of the missiles used in such strikes contained tiny, sharp-edged cubes of purpose-made shrapnel, which are scattered as the missile explodes.

    Mr Garlasco says these were designed as anti-tank weapons, but are often used by Israel for targeted killings, as they "do they job well" - the blast is confined to a small radius, the missiles are relatively light and can be mounted on unmanned drones.

    Mahmoud al-Habbash
    Mahmoud al-Habbash says he cannot remember the blast that "sucked" him

    Mahmoud al-Habbash, 15, shows us the spot on a rooftop where his cousins were killed by a guided missile. According to HRW, the missile contained such cube-shaped shrapnel.

    "We were feeding the chickens and playing," he says. "We did it every day and did not think we had any reason to be afraid."

    "I looked to the sky and I saw a flame coming towards us and I shouted and ran. It was strange, I was suddenly sucked back forcefully, but I don't even remember hearing the blast," says Mahmoud.

    "Shada, who was 12 and Isra who was 10 were killed. Jamila lost both legs, she is 14. Muhammad who is 16 lost one leg. Muhammad says when the explosion happened, it looked like there was a huge cloud of flies around us."

    Qusai al-Habbash, 48, a science teacher and the father of the two girls who died, says the area had been calm and that families along the street had been going about their business as normal.

    "Still, I thought of warning my children not to go outside, because of what was happening in other areas," he says. "But then I told myself that the Israeli weapons were very sophisticated. They can easily see who is a child and who is a militant. But they killed my children anyway."

    Amnesty has listed many cases in which civilians were killed in this manner, including eight secondary school students who were waiting for the school bus to take them home

  2. #122
    PARIS — feeling stained by Israeli crimes against the civilian population of the bombed-out Gaza Strip, two prominent French-American Jews are demanding the removal of their relatives names from Israel's famous Holocaust memorial. "We ask that our grandmother’s name be removed from the wall at Yad Vashem," Michael Neumann and his brother Osha wrote to Israeli President Shimon Peres, also director of Yad Vashem museum.

    In their letter, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline, the brothers ask for the name of Gertrud Neumann to be erased from the memorial of Jewish victims in WWII.

    "Our grandmother was a victim of that very ideal of ethnic sovereignty in whose cause Israel has shed so much blood for so long," they stressed.

    Click to read the letter Palestinian Holocaust Museum Killed by Israel, Eaten by Dogs "Dad, I'm Dying" "In life, our grandmother suffered enough. Stop making her a party to this horror in her death," added the brothers, who hold French, American and Canadian nationalities. "Please take this as an expression of disgust and contempt for your state and all it represents."

    The brothers are following the example of Jean-Moise Braitberg, a French novelist who also wrote to Peres asking that the name of his grandfather, Moshe Braitberg, and other members of his family be removed from the Yad Vashem memorial.

    He insisted that the names of his relatives must not become part of justifying the Israeli cruelty against Palestinians.

    Israel's 22-day onslaught on the densely-populated Gaza enclave killed more than 1,350 people, half of them women and children, and injured thousands more.

    Some 21,100 homes, 1,500 factories, 25 mosques, 31 government buildings and scores of schools across Gaza were destroyed by the air, sea and ground attacks.

    Shame

    In their letter, the Neumanns link their request to the burden Israel's crimes has placed on Jews and humanity at large. "Our complicity was despicable," Michael, a professor of philosophy at a Canadian university, wrote. "I do not believe that the Jewish people, in whose name you have committed so many crimes with such outrageous complacency, can ever rid itself of the shame you have brought upon us."

    Michael -- the author of many books including "The Case Against Israel" and "What is Anti-Semitism" – insists that Nazi propaganda, for all its calumnies, never disgraced and corrupted the Jews but Israel did.

    "You blacken our names not only by your acts, but by the lies, the coy evasions, the smirking arrogance and the infantile self-righteousness with which you embroider our history."

    Osha, an artist and civil rights lawyer, believes that Israel actions have made the word Jew synonym to "fascist".

    "Israel long ago woke me from my dogmatic slumber about the immutable relationship of Jews to Fascists. It has engineered a merger between the image of Jewish torturers and war criminals and that of emaciated concentration camp victims," he wrote.

    "I find this merger obscene. I want no part of it."

    Source: IslamOnline

  3. #123
    Clinton faces Jewish backlash over Gaza
    Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:52:14 GMT
    US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
    US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following an Obama administration policy reversal has been hit with strong condemnation from her former New York Jewish supporters.

    Clinton previously known as a strong proponent of the Zionist state has angered her former allies as she backs the new administration's Middle East policy that foresees a USD 900m reconstruction program for a devastated Gaza Strip, in contrast to the Bush administration's blatant pro-Israeli prejudice.

    Clinton criticized Israel for putting barriers in place to obstruct the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza on the eve of her first visit to the region next week.

    Senior US officials reportedly told their Israeli counterparts last week that "Israel is not making enough effort to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza". More criticism is expected from the US next week with Mideast special envoy George Mitchell's visit to Israel.

    However, State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, Brooklyn, told CBS, "I liked her a lot more as a senator from New York, now, I wonder as I used to wonder who the real Hilary Clinton is."

    The Israeli people and politicians however, do not seem very concerned over the criticism made by Clinton and her officials, despite the outrage their New York counterparts displayed.

    Defense department officials confirmed that the pressure is rising on Israel to reopen crossings that will allow larger volumes of aid in for the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.

    At present, less than 200 aid trucks are allowed through each day, but the United Nations, the US and EU are demanding at least 500 daily truck runs into Gaza.

    Meanwhile, Palestinian sources said that without a cease-fire agreement with Israel, America's plan for reconstruction aid to the Gaza Strip will not have any long-standing effect as Israel still refuses to allow basic construction materials into the area.

    RSM/HAR

  4. #124
    Hundreds barred from prayers at Al-Aqsa
    Mohammed Mar’i | Arab News


    RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli police barred hundreds of Palestinians from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for prayers yesterday.

    Palestinian sources said that thousands of police and Border Guard officers were deployed in the Old City, despite the stormy weather, to prevent worshipers from entering A-Aqsa. The Israeli police said that the decision followed intelligence indicating a possible riot following protests against the Jewish-dominated Jerusalem municipality orders to hundreds of Palestinians to leave their homes in East Jerusalem’s Al-Bustan neighborhood.

    The Israeli police have allowed Palestinian men over age 45 and Palestinians woman over age 35 to enter the site for prayers.

    The national and religious movements in Jerusalem called for the organization of events to protest the Israeli decision to “demolish dozens of houses in the historical neighborhoods of Jerusalem and the displacement of thousands of citizens to Judize the city and the targeting of Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

    The Jerusalem municipality last Sunday ordered owners of 80 houses in Al-Bustan neighborhood to leave their “illegal” homes.

    For its part, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) called on Palestinians to launch “a national general strike” today to protest the “new Israeli massacre that aims to Judize Jerusalem.”

  5. #125
    Despite the Israeli formal commitment not to expand West Bank settlements, a government agency has been promoting plans over the past two years to construct thousands of housing units east of the Green Line, Israeli daily Haaretz has reported.

    The plans, which have not yet been approved by the Israeli government, were drawn up by the Civil Administration, the government agency responsible for nonmilitary matters in the West Bank. Details of the plans appear in the minutes of the agency's environmental subcommittee, which were obtained by the B'Tselem organization under the Freedom of Information Act.

    The plans propose the initial construction of 550 apartments in Gva'ot, located near Alon Shvut in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, followed by construction of another 4,450 units at a later stage. Rimonim will get another 254 apartments if the plans are approved, and expansion plans are also in the works for Einav and Mevo Dotan. All three of these settlements are east of the separation fence.

    Ma'aleh Adumim has included planned construction in the E-1 corridor in its sewage treatment plans. That corridor, which links Ma'aleh Adumim to occupied Jerusalem, is eventually slated to hold some 3,500 apartments.

    Nearby Kfar Adumim's sewage treatment plan predicts that the settlement will double its population "in the coming years," to 5,600 inhabitants. And in Eshkolot, the Civil Administration instructed the settlement to draw up a sewage plan adequate for a population five times its current one.

    A Civil Administration spokesman said that its "environmental subcommittee does not discuss approval for housing units at all, but deals with the professional aspects of the area's environmental needs, sometimes at the theoretical level."
    ¬
    Source: AJP

  6. #126
    WASHINGTON — After failure to remove harsh criticism of its major ally Israel, the United States said Saturday, February 28, it will boycott a UN anti-racism conference over claims of anti-Semitism. "We're not going to further engage in Durban II," a senior State Department official told Agence France Presse (AFP) on the condition of anonymity.

    The State Department has said the decision was taken after Washington failed to remove the harsh criticism of Israel in the proposed final statement.

    During preparatory talks in Geneva on February 16, the US tried hard but in vain to change the draft statement.

    "The current text of the draft outcome document is not salvageable," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in statement late Friday.

    "As a result, the United States will not engage in further negotiations on this text, nor will we participate in a conference based on this text."

    Canada and Israel have said they would boycott the racism-fighting conference, scheduled for 20-24 April in Geneva.

    The conference was first held in Durban, South Africa, a few days before the 9/11 attacks in the US, and against the backdrop of the second Palestinian intifada.

    Israel and the US walked out of the conference in protest against attempts by Arab countries to adopt a resolution equating Zionism with racism.

    Jubilant Israel

    Washington's boycott won plaudits from Israel and US Jewish organizations, which urged European countries to follow suit.

    "Under the fig leaf of combating racism, this conference is blatantly anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said.

    "The decision of the United States should be an example to other countries that share our values," she added in a statement from her office.

    A senior member of the right-wing Likud party tasked with forming a new Israeli government after the February 10 elections, also praised the US decision.

    "I congratulate the United States on its decision, which proves it is faithful to its commitments to Israel," Silvan Shalom said.

    "This is further proof of the close ties that unite our two countries."

    US Jewish groups also hailed the move.

    "It is our hope that the European countries will follow suit and announce that they will not participate," the Conference of Presidents, an umbrella group of more than 50 Jewish organizations, said in a statement Saturday.

    The United Jewish Communities also joined the chorus of praise.

    "As feared, it has become increasingly clear that the only purpose of the Durban conference is to condemn the State of Israel for its very existence," it said.

    "President (Barack) Obama is absolutely correct in refusing to participate in this sham."

    Source: IslamOnline

  7. #127
    OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Muslim and Christian leaders across the occupied Palestinian lands are shocked with repeated Israeli insults of the prophets and religious sanctities.

    "I don't really know when Jews will start to respect the religious sensitivities of non-Jews," the Chief religious judge of Palestine, Dr. Taysir Tamimi, told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, February 28.

    "It is very shocking and very telling that Jewish religious leaders in Israel and abroad have not condemned these blasphemous acts."

    Israeli media shocked millions of Muslims and Christians last week by mocking Jesus, his mother Mary and Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him).

    A TV comedy skit, hosted by Israeli comedian Lior Shlein, last week depicted Jesus as being "too fat" to have walked on water and that May was not virgin.

    The insult came after the host angered million of Muslims when he pointed to one of his shoes, saying "This is Muhammad."

    "Muslims throughout the world have been shocked by the evil campaign waged against Islam and the Prophet (PBUH) and abuse of this shameful campaign against the sanctities with insults addressed against the Prophet and a religion followed by more than 1.5 billion Muslims," said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

    "This shameful conduct came a few days after broadcasting insulting rhetoric against Prophet Jesus and his virgin mother, Mary, peace be upon them."

    *
    Wicked, blasphemous

    Salim Kubti, a lawyer representing Christian courts in Israel, said he was considering a libel suit against Channel-10, which hosted the comedy show.

    "Such remarks go beyond satire and dark humor," he told IOL.

    "These are serious utterances insulting the sensibilities of every Christian and anyone who possesses values and mutual respect for other religions.

    "It's clear that Shlein is a failure and as a result is looking for any way to improve his ratings, and he is jumping on a sensitive issue."

    The Vatican labeled the Israeli show "a vulgar and offensive act of intolerance toward the religious sentiments of the believers in Christ."

    Some Christian leaders and clergymen even Pope Benedict XVI to postpone or cancel his planned visit to Israel, scheduled to take place in May.

    The outcry forced outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to apologize for Pope Benedict XVI, saying the comedy segment didn't represent Israel's views.

    IOL has contacted some Jewish leaders for comment, but they refused to talk.

    Muslim leaders also denounced the Israeli TV show, calling it "wicked and blasphemous."

    "We believe in freedom of expression, but we don't believe in freedom of vulgarity and blasphemy," Ikrema Sabri, head of the Supreme Muslim Council in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem), said in the weekly Friday sermon.

    "You can't insult and offend people under the pretext of freedom of expression."

    He said the "apparent acquiescence" of the Israeli government to these vulgarities reflected "malice and ill-will" toward Muslims, calling on Muslims worldwide to send an "unmistakable warning" to Israel to refrain from insulting religious symbols.

    Israel has a long history of showing disrespect to Muslim and Christian faiths.

    In 1948, the Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish groups systematically destroyed hundreds of mosques in Palestine in an effort to obliterate the country's Arab-Islamic identity.

    Mosques left intact, such as the Beir al Saba'a Mosque, were converted into bars or brothels. Others were simply left to fall into disrepair.

    Shortly after the 1967 Middle East war, the chief rabbi of the Israeli army, Shlomo Gorin, urged the military to blow up Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, "once and for all".

    In January 1984, armed Jewish extremists, led by Rabbi Moshe Levinger, one of the leaders of Gush Emunim, the Jewish settler movement, attempted to dynamite and destroy Al-Aqsa mosque.

    Jewish insults of Muslim and Christian symbols became more common and audacious in recent years.

    Nearly ten years ago, a Jewish immigrant from the former Soviet Union drew an offensive image depicting Prophet Muhammad as a pig writing the Qur'an.

    In 2006, a Jewish couple walked into the Basilica of Annunciation Church in the Arab town of Nazareth in Israel, carrying 19 gas canisters, bottles of turpentine and kerosene, 64 firecrackers and 25 rocket-shaped fireworks.

    The couple placed the fireworks and the gas canisters in a corner then poured kerosene on them, causing a fire.

    Moreover, Yeshiva (Talmudic school) students have been spitting on Christian clergymen in Al-Quds and breaking their crucifixes.

    Some other fanatical Jews don't hesitate to refer to Jesus as "Hitler of Bethlehem."
    Source: IslamOnline

  8. #128
    Interpol issues arrest warrants for 15 Israelis
    Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:36:57 GMT
    Tehran's Public Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi
    The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) has issued a circular calling for the arrest of 15 top Israeli officials over war crimes.

    At a news briefing on Sunday, Tehran's Public Prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, said that Iran had referred the case to the organization, known as Interpol, drawing on the Interpol charter and Israel's violation of the Geneva Conventions.

    "ICPO has notified governments of 180 countries to arrest the suspects," who were involved in the 23-day Israeli offensive on Gaza in December and January he said.

    In December, Iran's judiciary announced its decision to set up a court to look into complaints made by the Palestinian envoy in Iran and wounded Palestinians delivered to Iran, against Israeli atrocities in Gaza, saying it was ready to try the Israelis in absentia.

    "In the current week, we have completed our investigation of about 15 individuals who were among those criminals," IRIB, Iran's State Television, quoted Mortazavi as saying.

    "Based on our investigation and according to article 2 of the Interpol charter, we asked Interpol to arrest these suspects."

    Mortazavi said the charges included war crimes, invasion, occupation, genocide and crimes against humanity.

    The Iranian prosecutor was referring to Israeli strikes that started on December 27 on the densely populated Palestinian coastal territory and did not end until it had claimed the lives of more than 1,330 Gazans, mostly civilians.

    Many international NGOs and human rights organizations, Palestinians wounded in the Gaza onslaught, more than 5,700 Iranian lawyers and attorneys in the Iranian Bar Association along with a large number of medics were also among those who filed complaints against Tel Aviv, Mortazavi added.

    The list of Israeli war criminals includes:

    1 Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
    2 Defense Minister Ehud Barak
    3 Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
    4 Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi
    5 Commander in Chief of the Israeli Air Force Ido Nehoshtan
    6 Commander of the Gaza war -- Operation Cast Lead -- Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant
    7 Head of Military Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin
    8 Commander of Battalion 13 in the Golani Brigade Lt. Col. Oren Cohen
    9 Deputy to the Givati Brigade Col. Ron Ashrov
    10 Commander of the Israel Paratroopers' Brigade in Gaza Col. Hertzi Halevy
    11 Commander of 401st Armored Corps Brigade convoy Col. Yigal Slovik
    12 Commander of the 101st Battalion in the Paratrooper Brigade Lt. Col. Avi Blot
    13 Lt. Col. Yoav Mordechai, who served as a commander of the Golani infantry brigade's 13th Battalion in Gaza
    14 Givati squad commander Col. Tomer Tsiter
    15 Brigade commander in Battalion 51 Col. Avi Peled

    MRS/SME/MMA

  9. #129
    Israeli media denounced for insulting the Prophet
    Ghazanfar Ali Khan | Arab News


    RIYADH: GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah yesterday denounced the derogatory remarks made about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in an Israeli television program. “These ugly remarks made against the Prophet is part of a malicious campaign against Muslims launched by the Jewish state,” he said in a statement on the sidelines of a GCC foreign ministers’ meeting.

    Al-Attiyah accused Israeli Channel 10 of organizing a blasphemous campaign against Islam and Christianity, saying that “this outrageous act is nothing but part of a series of ferocious attacks made by the state-sponsored Israeli media on the Islamic value system, teachings and sanctities.”

    The GCC ministers met under the chairmanship of Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah of Oman and discussed a range of regional and international issues, including Palestine, Lebanon, Somalia, Darfur, Iran and Iraq. The peaceful use of nuclear technology was also addressed.

    The GCC ministers, however, reiterated their demand to make the Middle East a nuclear arms-free zone. All the six foreign ministers attended the 110th ministerial session at the GCC General Secretariat. Prince Saud Al-Faisal led the Kingdom’s delegation to the session.

    Referring to the Israeli television, which carried a clip of Israel’s version of the reality show “Survivor” in which a contestant insults the Prophet, the GCC chief called on the international community and the United Nations to take immediate measures to stop the defamation of prophets and religions. The clip’s broadcast comes days after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert issued a public apology for two segments that aired on Israeli Channel 10, in which Christianity was also mocked.

    Referring to the need to exert more efforts to bring the Middle East peace process back on tracks, the GCC foreign ministers called on all parties to revitalize it in a way that will serve the interests of the Palestinian people and eventually help set up their independent state.

    In his opening remarks at the meeting, Omani Minister Abdullah welcomed the call of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for greater unity and solidarity at the Arab economic summit in Kuwait recently.

    The ministers also praised “the efforts of the Bahraini leadership, which played a major role in defusing a crisis with Iran” following a spate of verbal attacks in which Ali Akbar Nateq Nuri, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, claimed Bahrain had been Iran’s “14th province”. The remark was an affront to Bahrain’s sovereignty.

    The ministers also praised the efforts made by Qatar in establishing peace in Darfur. The ministers said in a statement that they share a common vision that will contribute to helping the Arab action that seeks to ensure peace in Palestine and elsewhere.

  10. #130
    Blair visits Gaza Strip to Assess Damage Firsthand Date : 1/3/2009 Time : 18:29

    GAZA, March 1, 1009 (WAFA)- The Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair is in the Gaza Strip to discuss reconstruction efforts.



    It is Blair's first visit to Gaza since he was appointed to present the Mideast peacemaking quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations in 2007.



    'I wanted to come to hear for myself, first hand, from people in Gaza whose lives have been so badly impacted,' Blair said in a statement.



    He is the latest in a number of high-ranking diplomats to visit Gaza since the end of the Israeli offensive against the strip, which ended up killing more than 1300 Palestinians and injuring over 5000.



    'I will relay their account of events, their assessment of what is needed for reconstruction, their goals for rebuilding a vibrant private sector and civil society, to this week's conference in Sharm El Sheikh,' Blair said in the statement.
    Source: AJP

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