:icon_sadangel2: Palestine Peace a dream?

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CAIRO — Under pressure from rights activists and investors, the US Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) divested from an Israeli company involved in settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian land. "TIAA-CREF no longer owns shares in Africa-Israel Investments Ltd," the fund said in statement cited by the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot on Sunday, September 13.
"While a small number of shares of Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. were held in the CREF Stock Account, since June 30, 2009 they are no longer held in the Account following their removal from an emerging markets index that the Account tracks."

The New York-based Adalah Coalition for Justice in Middle East has sent a letter to TIAA-CREF, signed by 60 of its shareholders, urging the giant US pension fund to divest from the Israeli company.

It accused Africa Israel of violating human rights and international laws by supporting settlements activities on occupied Palestinian lands.

The Africa-Israel Investments Ltd is owned by Israeli billionaire and diamond magnate Lev Leviev, know by his support for settlement expansions.

Through it subsidiary, Danya Cebus, Africa-Israel subcontracted the building of a Jewish settlement on the land of the Palestinian village of Bil'in.

It is also building housing units in other settlements, cutting the holy city of Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) from the rest of the occupied West Bank.

Leviev, who has served in the Israeli army, is a major contributor to the Land Redemption Fund, a Jewish group accused of intimidation and strong-arms tactics to secure Palestinian lands for settlement construction.

Campaign

Adalah regretted that the multi-billion dollar financial services and retirement firm still invests in other Israeli companies participating in settlement activities.

"Despite the recent divestment from Africa-Israel, the new June 30th TIAA-CREF report indicates that the fund continues to invest clients' money in a number of companies supporting Israeli settlement activity including Israel Discount Bank, Cellcom Israel, Bezeq Israeli Telecommunications Corp, Bank Leumi, and Motorola, among others."

TIAA-CREF, a Fortune 500 company, holds $400 billion in assets and has 3.6 million investors across 15,000 academic institutions in the US.

There are more than 164 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied territory.

The international community considers all Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land illegal.

Adalah-NY is championing a campaign against Africa-Israel Investments for human-rights violations.

In May, eleven organizations called on the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, reportedly the fifth-largest shareholder, to divest from Africa-Israel.

The investment giant BlackRock, Africa-Israel’s seventh largest investor, has already had divested from the company.

Swedish activists have informed Adalah-NY that the Swedish pension fund AP1, reportedly the tenth largest investor in Africa-Israel, had also divested from the company.

Source: IslamOnline

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The US envoy to the Middle East has made another visit to Israel to arrange the first meeting between Palestinians and the new Israeli leadership.

Washington expects the meeting to take place on the sidelines of the upcoming UN General Assembly, which will open on Sept 15.

Talks between Palestinians and Israelis have been suspended since Israel's current right-wing government came to power.

Extremist policies pursued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have halted the Middle East negotiations.

The development comes as Palestinian sources say Israel is working on a new settlement plan that is equal to the grab of nearly 140-thousand acres of Arab land near Jerusalem (al-Quds).

Despite the widespread international condemnations and an apparent US opposition against Tel Aviv's settlement activities, the Israeli government has also authorized construction of hundreds of new housing units in the occupied territories of the West Bank.

The international community considers Israeli settlements in all of the West Bank including East Jerusalem to be illegal and a major obstacle on the way to permanent peace in the Middle East.

Israeli settlement expansion will top the agenda during Mitchell's separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the VOA reported.

The new Israeli leadership has not yet agreed to give an unconditional recognition to the concept of an independent Palestinian state.

MGH/SC

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Experience of Ramadan in Gaza Date : 13/9/2009 Time : 18:46
AMSTERDAM, September 13, 2009 (WAFA)- Bloggers in Gaza write about how people are managing this Ramadan, and describe how some traditions are being kept alive, the Global Voices website based in Amsterdam published Sunday .

Lina Al Sharif, blogging at 360 km 2 of Chaos, writes: Ramadan in Gaza is not like elsewhere. The suffering of the people reached the point where some people have water for Iftar, because they are too poor to buy food. Other have their Iftar in a tent in a refugee camp made for those who lost their houses in the war.

Foods are being smuggled from Egypt; however, they are beyond what an average family can afford. The prices of almost everything is doubled due to the siege.

Nevertheless, there are still things to take pleasure in. Lina and her friend Bodour Abu-Kuwaik put together this sequence of Ramadan scenes in Gaza:

I was invited to take a Ramadan breakfast in my friend Jumaa’s house. He lives in Al Maghazi Refugee Camp where people still are suffering miserably from the impacts of the War on their houses and streets. Basically, most of the residents of the Gaza Strip are already refugees and during the War they were once again forced to evacuate their houses and flee. I asked my friend to take me around in the camps small pass-ways, as I wanted to be closer to the people actually living there. Indeed, this made me feel strongly how much the people in the Refugee Camp are still in real pain. In the middle of the Al Maghazi Refugee Camp there is still a completely destroyed building – impossible to ignore by the people living in the Camp. I found little children playing on the rubbles of this building which really made me sad. But THEY didn’t mind and seemed to be really happy.

Source: AJP

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Jewish settlers have clashed with Israeli security forces after authorities blocked them from relocating a caravan in a West Bank settlement.

The clashes erupted on Sunday morning after civil administration inspectors told Havat Gilad residents that their move was illegal and then confiscated the caravan and the truck carrying it.

Angry settlers punctured the wheels of a military vehicle and threw stones at the security forces, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

Settlers then held talks with military officials to restore calm in return for the caravan and truck.

Under the international law, building settlements and expanding them in the territory occupied during the 1967 war, including the West Bank, is illegal.

Jewish settlers, however, usually defy the ban through erecting what are referred to as the illegal outposts, namely makeshift homes and residences. Such moves are usually carried out with the blessing of the right-wing parties.

SB/MB

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A single-seat Israeli fighter jet has crashed in the occupied West Bank, killing its pilot, officials say.

Israeli police started searching in southern West Bank after receiving reports that a small aircraft may have crashed in the area on Sunday, AFP reported.

"Police received a report of a possible plane crash in the southern hills of Hebron," a police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said.

Officials later confirmed that an F-16 fighter jet had crashed near the settlement of Bnei Haver, in the rugged terrain of the Hebron Hills. It is not clear what caused the accident.

The pilot, the son of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon who died in the 2003 space shuttle Columbia explosion, was killed in action.

Israeli Blackhawk helicopters were the first to locate the plane. According to Haaretz, the search and rescue unit has retrieved the pilot's body.

SB/MD

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Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak urges the Israeli prime minister to stop settlement activities in Jerusalem, warning of the dangerous consequences to peace efforts.

Mubarak warned Benjamin Netanyahu of the dangers settlement activity can cause in east Jerusalem (al-Quds).

The two met in Cairo on Sunday amid a renewed diplomatic push for the so-called Middle East peace process by the US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.

Presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said after the talks that Mubarak "urged Israel to stop all settlement activity, including 'natural growth' settlements."

The president "also urged Israel to stop attempts to Judaize Jerusalem, warning of the dangerous consequences to peace efforts and highlighting the sensitivity of the Jerusalem issue to the Arab and Islamic worlds," Awad said.

Egypt's intelligence supremo Omar Suleiman was also present at the meeting.

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians were suspended after Israel invaded Gaza last December. Israel's 22-day war on the Gaza Strip resulted in 1,500 Palestinian deaths and approximately 5,450 injuries. Most of the victims were civilians.

FTP/SME/MMA

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The West Bank economy has shown a significant growth but further increase solely depends on Israel's policy towards the Palestinians, an IMF report says.

An International Monetary Fund report on Sunday said that the West Bank is likely to post about seven percent growth this year for the first time since 2005.

The international lending agency is to present a report to the United Nations donors conference on September 22 stressing on the point that achieving the projected figure is largely based on Israel's policy towards the Palestinians.

"Provided remaining restrictions in the West Bank are lifted in the remainder of the year, real GDP in the West Bank is projected to rise by about seven percent in 2009," said Oussama Kanaan, the Head of the IMF's mission to the West Bank and Gaza and one of the authors of the report.

It added that this would be the "first substantial increase in living standards since 2005."

The report also says that it would take several years for the West Bank economy to recover from the closures put in place following the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising (intifada) in 2000.

"Even in this scenario, real income per capita in 2012 would still be around 20 percent below its level in 2000," the report said, adding that unemployment would be slightly higher in 2012 than it was before the intifada.

Unemployment in the first half of 2009 remained high, at 18 percent in the West Bank and 37 percent in Gaza, though it was slightly down from 2008.

Turning to the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas, Kanaan said the situation there "remains very difficult despite a very limited easing" of the Israeli blockade.

Hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints still remain, international monitors say. Israel, which captured the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War, says the measures are vital to Israeli security.

Israel is under international pressure to allow a free flow of reconstruction material into the Gaza Strip to repair or rebuild buildings damaged or destroyed in its three-week assault on the impoverished sliver from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009.

FTP/SME/MMA

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Palestinians hold Israel responsible for the death of a 25-year-old Hebron (al-Khalil) resident injured by Israeli bullets last month.

Israeli soldiers had shot Ubayda Dweik several times on his chest and feet on Aug. 26 claiming he attempted to stab an Israeli soldier.

Dweik died on Sunday morning in an Israeli hospital where he was taken after being shot. He remained in a critical condition from day one till the end of his life, his family said, adding that they as well as the deceased's lawyer were not permitted to visit him in the hospital.

Following Dweik's death, the Palestinian Prisoners Society released a statement, holding Israeli authorities accountable for his death.

Mo'taz al-Qudsy, the brother of Dweik, demanded an official probe into the incident, and voiced an appeal to the International Red Cross to be more involved in detainees' issues.

Hamas spokesperson, Fawzi Barhoum, described the death of Dweik as an 'ugly crime' committed by the Zionist forces. "Israeli leaders must be prosecuted for war crimes. Such crimes should at least catch the attention of the International Community to closely observe the daily suffering of the Palestinian people," he said.

The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees also reported on Sunday that the number of Palestinian political prisoners who have died in Israeli prisons since 1967 is more than 197. The ministry added that 70 detainees had died during interrogation after being violently tortured.

It added that another 70 detainees were executed after they were kidnapped by the army, and 49 detainees died after being denied access to proper medical treatment.

FTP/SME/MMA

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Visiting Al Aqsa Mosque for Ramadan prayers: insults, provocation, mockery of religious rituals


13.09.09 - 22:39
Tulkarem / Mustafa Sabri for PNN – For residents of the West Bank it is easier to travel to Mecca to perform Hajj and Umrah than it is to access East Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque.

Despite the proximity, Israeli barriers and crossings are in place to prevent access all along the way. The first Qiblah is the third holiest site for Muslims and the occupying police haunt even the final doors into the Mosque.

For the third Friday of Ramadan, PNN was on the scene.

Difficult journey

It was not possible to enter Al Aqsa Mosque as usual, but women and the elderly could. The age groups that were banned performed Friday prayers in the surrounding areas of the Mosque, in the neighborhoods and the villages. After an arduous and difficult journey in the sultry days of summer it seemed cruel to not be able to enter.

A 67 year old man from Qalqilia said, “The Jews do not have mercy on anyone. All worshippers have been prevented from approaching the gates of Al Aqsa Mosque. There is no help for the elderly who have to walk a great distance; myself, I am walking more than a kilometer so that I can enter. I am exhausted and am trying to help the elderly from my congregation who are with me.”

The journey is incredibly difficult, with Israeli soldiers deliberately placing obstacles in front of each visitor so that he will not again return to Jerusalem or visit Al Aqsa Mosque.

Looks suspicious

Seventy year old Haj Ahmed Zeid told PNN, “On our faces are the looks of fatigue and our bodies are weak. The soldiers are screaming in the Hebrew language, ‘why come to Jerusalem.’ Immediately I assert my rights, but there are twice the number of troops deployed along the road leading to the gates of Al Aqsa Mosque and saw with my own eyes the prosecutions by each of the soldiers against the people who are suspected of being young from the West Bank. Young Jerusalemites are stopped to ensure their place of residence. It is tragic that Jews come from around the world to control our entry to Al Aqsa Mosque.”

Under 50

Throughout the world people want to remain in the prime of their youth and strength. But this is not the case for Palestinians who wish to age quickly in order to be able to enter Al Aqsa Mosque. A man told PNN, “Israeli soldiers stopped me because I’m 38 years old and said to me, ‘If you are over 50 then you have the right to enter.’ I disagreed and a group of soldiers came over. A Druze told me to enter from another way, but within seconds border guards and police were there who said, ‘We’re security forces, not charity.’ I said to one, ‘I have not seen Jerusalem for several years.’ He replied sarcastically, ‘Let Abu Mazen tell Netanyahu to reduce the age limit, then you are entitled to enter. This is the land of Israel. Do you understand?’”

Men under 50 are banned from praying in Al Aqsa Mosque, as are women less than 45 years of age.

Increased racism

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Court and Imam of Al Aqsa Mosque, told PNN that by determining the age of entering the Mosque, the occupying authority has reached a new height in racism by attempting to drain religion of its youth.

“This is contrary to all laws and regulations in force internationally, and I was perplexed by the silence of human rights bodies and Western countries that speak of pro-democracy day and night, and who raised concerns over issues such as Buddha statues in Afghanistan, while in Jerusalem the Palestinians are suffering from intense racism and holy places are being violated in broad daylight.”

Despite the stun grenades, smoke, gas, rubber and live bullets that were used throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem to prevent worshippers from reaching Al Aqsa Mosque on Friday, many of us made it, and we will all keep pushing through.

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Visiting Al Aqsa Mosque for Ramadan prayers: insults, provocation, mockery of religious rituals


13.09.09 - 22:39
Tulkarem / Mustafa Sabri for PNN – For residents of the West Bank it is easier to travel to Mecca to perform Hajj and Umrah than it is to access East Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque.

Despite the proximity, Israeli barriers and crossings are in place to prevent access all along the way. The first Qiblah is the third holiest site for Muslims and the occupying police haunt even the final doors into the Mosque.

For the third Friday of Ramadan, PNN was on the scene.

Difficult journey

It was not possible to enter Al Aqsa Mosque as usual, but women and the elderly could. The age groups that were banned performed Friday prayers in the surrounding areas of the Mosque, in the neighborhoods and the villages. After an arduous and difficult journey in the sultry days of summer it seemed cruel to not be able to enter.

A 67 year old man from Qalqilia said, “The Jews do not have mercy on anyone. All worshippers have been prevented from approaching the gates of Al Aqsa Mosque. There is no help for the elderly who have to walk a great distance; myself, I am walking more than a kilometer so that I can enter. I am exhausted and am trying to help the elderly from my congregation who are with me.”

The journey is incredibly difficult, with Israeli soldiers deliberately placing obstacles in front of each visitor so that he will not again return to Jerusalem or visit Al Aqsa Mosque.

Looks suspicious

Seventy year old Haj Ahmed Zeid told PNN, “On our faces are the looks of fatigue and our bodies are weak. The soldiers are screaming in the Hebrew language, ‘why come to Jerusalem.’ Immediately I assert my rights, but there are twice the number of troops deployed along the road leading to the gates of Al Aqsa Mosque and saw with my own eyes the prosecutions by each of the soldiers against the people who are suspected of being young from the West Bank. Young Jerusalemites are stopped to ensure their place of residence. It is tragic that Jews come from around the world to control our entry to Al Aqsa Mosque.”

Under 50

Throughout the world people want to remain in the prime of their youth and strength. But this is not the case for Palestinians who wish to age quickly in order to be able to enter Al Aqsa Mosque. A man told PNN, “Israeli soldiers stopped me because I’m 38 years old and said to me, ‘If you are over 50 then you have the right to enter.’ I disagreed and a group of soldiers came over. A Druze told me to enter from another way, but within seconds border guards and police were there who said, ‘We’re security forces, not charity.’ I said to one, ‘I have not seen Jerusalem for several years.’ He replied sarcastically, ‘Let Abu Mazen tell Netanyahu to reduce the age limit, then you are entitled to enter. This is the land of Israel. Do you understand?’”

Men under 50 are banned from praying in Al Aqsa Mosque, as are women less than 45 years of age.

Increased racism

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Court and Imam of Al Aqsa Mosque, told PNN that by determining the age of entering the Mosque, the occupying authority has reached a new height in racism by attempting to drain religion of its youth.

“This is contrary to all laws and regulations in force internationally, and I was perplexed by the silence of human rights bodies and Western countries that speak of pro-democracy day and night, and who raised concerns over issues such as Buddha statues in Afghanistan, while in Jerusalem the Palestinians are suffering from intense racism and holy places are being violated in broad daylight.”

Despite the stun grenades, smoke, gas, rubber and live bullets that were used throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem to prevent worshippers from reaching Al Aqsa Mosque on Friday, many of us made it, and we will all keep pushing through.