Video: Puerto Rican, Cuban, Palestinian and Black Liberation Political Prisoners Workshop at NLG Convention.... The National Lawyers Guild International Committee’s Cuba, Puerto Rico and Palestine Subcommittees co-sponsored a workshop at the NLG Convention in Puerto Rico, October 25, 2013, entitled ”Political Prisoners and Liberation Struggles: Palestinian Prisoners, the Cuban Five, Puerto Rico and Assata Shakur & the Black Liberation Movement.” Video of the workshop is now available online! http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x16hoqe_nlg-political-prisioners-and-liberation-struggles-part-1-of-3_news

NLG - Political Prisioners and Liberation Struggles (Part 2 of 3)

 National Lawyers Guild - Political Prisioners and Liberation Struggles: Palestian Prisioners, the Cuban Five and Puerto Rico (2nd of 3 Parts), San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 25, 2013. Video: Eduardo Rivera Pagán / MINH Comunicación
 NLG - Political Prisioners and Liberation Struggles (Part 3 of 3)
The workshop addresses the current state of the respective struggles and their political prisoners.The Puerto Rican people have always resisted colonialism, and have waged campaigns for the release of the thousands of their compatriots who have been imprisoned for their commitment to independence, and have always advocated for their human rights.The U.S. has imprisoned the Cuban Five since 1998 for trying to prevent Florida based terrorism against Cuba. An update on legal & political developments, including newly discovered evidence.The movement of Palestinian political prisoners has received growing attention internationally. The struggle of Palestinian prisoners, given the role of US aid and funding to Israel, is directly connected to that of other prisoners held by the US.Recently, the FBI named Assata Shakur as the first woman on its “Most Wanted Terrorists” list, funding a $2 million bounty for her capture and return from Cuba. The workshop will address Assata’s case as an illustration of the criminalization of the Black Liberation Movement and numerous political prisoners that emerged from it.Speakers:Alberto Rodriguez Alberto Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican Independentista who in 1983 was arrested by a FBI led task force and charged with the impossible crime of Seditious Conspiracy for fighting for the independence of Puerto Rico. After a lengthy federal trial during which many important political issues like the illegality of U.S. colonialism over Puerto Rico were raised, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. After 16 years of incarceration, he along with most but not all the Puerto Rican Political Prisoners received Executive Clemency from then President Bill Clinton and was released.Soffiyah Elijah Soffiyah Elijah, Executive Director of the Correctional Association of New York, is the first woman and the first person of color to lead the nearly 170-year old organization in its mission to create a fairer and more humane criminal justice system. She served previously as Deputy Director and Clinical Instructor at the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School, and before that was a member of the faculty and Director and Supervising Attorney of the Defender Clinic at the City University of New York School of Law. Ms. Elijah has also worked as a Supervising Attorney at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, a Staff Attorney at the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society, and in private practice.An accomplished advocate, scholar, and educator, Ms. Elijah is a frequent presenter on national and international media and at forums on criminal justice policy and human rights issues. Some of her work on behalf of political prisoners has included: post trial/appellate representation of Sundiata Acoli (the other African American survivor besides Assata Shakur from the NJ turnpike shooting), and of Marilyn Buck (who was charged and convicted of involvement in Assata’s escape); representation of the San Francisco 8, and of organizations such as the Venceremos Brigade.Bradley ParkerBrad Parker is Staff Attorney and International Advocacy Officer with Defence for Children International Palestine, an independent child-rights organization dedicated to defending and promoting the rights of children living in occupied Palestine. He was previously the Legal Advocacy Officer with MADRE.Rafael Anglada-Lopez Rafael Anglada López is a lawyer and a civil rights activist. He was a member of the Federación de Universitarios Pro Independencia (FUPI-Federation of Pro-Independence University Students), a delegate for the Puerto Rican Socialist Party before the United Nations, and a reporter for Claridad, the major pro-independence newspaper. Anglada has dedicated his life to the struggle for Puerto Rican independence from the United States and, as an attorney, defending the rights of political dissidents. Atty. Anglada-Lopez has been associated with the defense of the Cuban Five since their trial in Miami in 2000-2001.

PALESTINIANS HONOURED IN BRASILIAN HOUSE OF DEPUTIES
http://www.brasil247.com/pt/247/brasilia247/122496/Palestinos-recebem-homenagem-na-C%C3%A2mara.htm
"The Palestinians can not be refugees in their own country. Over five million Palestinians should be guaranteed the right to return to their land, "said Mrs Perpetua Almeida (PCdoB-AC), the Solemn Session in Honor of International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Chamber of Deputies, Brasilia
The speeches were interspersed with artistic presentation of Palestinian figures. "Let us sing together for peace and dignity of all peoples and nations of the region lives," said the ambassador.To an audience of 38 ambassadors, officials and members of the Arab community, the MP said that "today the House is more beautiful for such a noble cause," making special deference to the Arab community."These who have an admirable culture, traditions and secular in the world today are the way they can contribute to a better life."The words of support from Brazilian legislators, the Palestinian ambassador in Brazil, Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil thanked Alzeben, saying the right of Palestinians to their lands is recognized by international law, based on respect for the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the peace of good neighborliness and resolution of conflicts through peaceful means, preserving the human being and the environment. "And recognizing the other's right to live with dignity," he said.

Israel’s Politics of Fragmentation
Background  If the politics of deflection exhibit the outward reach of Israel’s grand strategy of territorial expansionism and regional hegemony, the politics of fragmentation serves Israel’s inward moves designed to weaken Palestinian resistance, induce despair, and de facto surrender. In fundamental respects deflection is an unwitting enabler of fragmentation, but it is also its twin or complement.
 The British were particularly adept in facilitating their colonial project all over the world by a variety of divide and rule tactics, which almost everywhere haunted anti-colonial movements, frequently producing lethal forms of post-colonial partition as in India, Cyprus, Ireland, Malaya, and of course, Palestine, and deadly ethnic strife elsewhere as in Nigeria, Kenya, Myanmar, Rwanda. Each of these national partitions and post-colonial traumas has produced severe tension and long lasting hostility and struggle, although each takes a distinctive form due to variations from country to country of power, vision, geography, resources, history, geopolitics, leadership.
 An additional British colonial practice and legacy was embodied in a series of vicious settler colonial movements that succeeded in effectively eliminating or marginalizing resistance by indigenous populations as in Australia, Canada, the United States, and somewhat less so in New Zealand, and eventually failing politically in South Africa and Namibia, but only after decades of barbarous racism.

In Palestine the key move was the Balfour Declaration, which was a colonialist gesture of formal approval given to the Zionist Project in 1917 tendered at the end of Ottoman rule over Palestine. This was surely gross interference with the dynamics of Palestinian self-determination (at the time the estimated Arab population of Palestine was 747,685, 92.1% of the total, while the Jewish population was an estimate 58,728, which amounted to 7.9%) and a decisive stimulus for the Zionist undertaking to achieve supremacy over the land embraced by the British mandate to administer Palestine in accordance with a framework agreement with the League of Nation. The agreement repeated the language of the Balfour Declaration in its preamble: “Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”(emphasis added) To describe this encouragement of Zionism as merely ‘interference’ is a terribly misleading understatement of the British role in creating a situation of enduring tension in Palestine, which was supposedly being administered on the basis of the wellbeing of the existing indigenous population, what was called “a sacred trust of civilization” in Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, established for the “well-being and development” of peoples ”not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world.”  The relevance of the politics of fragmentation refers to a bundle of practices and overall approach that assumed the form of inter-ethnic and inter-religious strife during the almost three decades that the mandate arrangements were in effect.*

At the same time, the British was not the whole story by any means: the fanatical and effective exploitation of the opportunity to establish a Jewish homeland of unspecified dimensions manifested the dedication, skill, and great ambition of the Zionist movement; the lack of comparable sustained and competent resistance by the indigenous population abetted the transformation of historic Palestine; and then these  developments were strongly reinforced by the horrors of the Holocaust and the early complicity of the liberal democracies with Naziism that led the West to lend its support to the settler colonial reality that Zionism had become well before the 1948 War. The result was the tragic combination of statehood and UN membership for Israel and the nakba involving massive dispossession creating forced refugee and exile for most Palestinians, and leading after 1967 to occupation, discrimination, and oppression of those Palestinians who remained either in Israel or in the 22% of original Palestine.

It should be recalled that the UN solution of 1947, embodied in GA Resolution 181, after the British gave up their mandatory role was no more in keeping with the ethos of self-determination than the Balfour Declaration, decreeing partition and allocating 55% of Palestine to the Jewish population, 45% to the Palestinians without the slightest effort to assess the wishes of the population resident in Palestine at the time or to allocate the land in proportion to the demographic realities at the time. The UN solution was a new rendition of Western paternalism, opposed at the time by the Islamic and Middle Eastern members of the UN. Such a solution was not as overbearing as the mandates system that was devised to vest quasi-colonial rule in the victorious European powers after World War I, yet it was still an Orientalist initiative aimed at the control and exploitation of the destiny of an ethnic, political, and economic entity long governed by the Ottoman Empire.

The Palestinians (and their Arab neighbors) are often told in patronizing tones by latter day Zionists and their apologists that the Palestinians had their chance to become a state, squandered their opportunity, thereby forfeiting their rights to a state of their own by rejecting the UN partition plan. In effect, the Israeli contention is that Palestinians effectively relinquished their statehood claims by this refusal to accept what the UN had decreed, while Israel by nominally accepting the UN proposals validated their sovereign status, which was further confirmed by its early admission to full membership in the UN. Ever since, Israel has taken advantage of the fluidity of the legal situation by at once pretending to accept the UN approach of seeking a compromise by way of mutual agreement with the  Palestinians while doing everything in its power to prevent such an outcome by projecting its force throughout the entirety of Palestine, by establishing and expanding settlements, the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, and by advancing an array of maximalist security claims that have diminished Palestinian prospects.  That is, Israel has publicly endorsed conflict-resolving diplomacy but operationally has been constantly moving the goal posts by unlawfully creating facts on the ground, and then successfully insisting on their acceptance as valid points of departure. In effect, and with American help, Israel has seemingly given the Palestinians a hard choice, which is tacitly endorsed by the United States and Europe: accept the Bantustan destiny we offer or remain forever refugees and victims of annexation, exile, discrimination, statelessness.

Israel has used its media leverage and geopolitical clout to create an asymmetric understanding of identity politics as between Jews and Palestinians. Jews being defined as a people without borders who can gain Israeli nationality no matter where they live on the planet, while Palestinians are excluded from Israeli nationality regardless of how deep their indigenous roots in Palestine itself. This distinction between the two peoples exhibits the tangible significance of Israel as a ‘Jewish State,’ and why such a designation is morally and legally unacceptable in the 21^st century even as it so zealously claimed by recent Israeli leaders, none more than Benyamin Netanyahu.  
 Modalities of Fragmentation
The logic of fragmentation is to weaken, if not destroy, a political opposition configuration by destroying its unity of purpose and strategy, and fomenting to the extent possible conflicts between different tendencies within the adversary movement. It is an evolving strategy that is interactive, and by its nature becomes an important theme of conflict. The Palestinians in public constantly stress the essential role of unity, along with reconciliation to moderate the relevance of internal differences. In contrast, the Israelis fan the flames of disunity, stigmatizing elements of the Palestinian reality that are relevantly submissive, and accept the agenda and frameworks that are devised by Tel Aviv refusing priorities set by Palestinian leaders. Over the course of the conflict from 1948 to the present, there have been ebbs and flows in the course of Palestinian unity, with maximum unity achieved during the time when Yasir Arafat was the resistance leader and maximum fragmentation evident since Hamas was successful in the 2006 Gaza elections, and managed to seize governmental control from Fatah in Gaza a year later. Another way that Israel has promoted Palestinian disunity is to favor the so-called moderates operating under the governance of the Palestinian Authority while imposing inflicting various punishments on Palestinians adhering to Hamas.

–Zionism, the Jewish State, and the Palestinian Minority. Perhaps, the most fundamental form of fragmentation is between Jews and Palestinians living within the state of Israel. This type of fragmentation has two principal dimensions: pervasive discrimination against the 20% Palestinian minority (about 1.5 million) affecting legal, social, political, cultural, and economic rights, and creating a Palestinian subjectivity of marginality, subordination, vulnerability. Although Palestinians in Israel are citizens they are excluded from many benefits and opportunities because they do not possess Jewish nationality. Israel may be the only state in the world that privileges nationality over citizenship in a series of contexts, including family reunification and access to residence. It is also worth observing that if demographic projections prove to be reliable Palestinians could be a majority in Israel as early as 2035, and would almost certainly outnumber Jews in the country by 2048. Not only does this pose the familiar choice for Israel between remaining an electoral democracy and retaining its self-proclaimed Jewish character, but it also shows how hegemonic it is to insist that the Palestinians and the international community accept Israel as a Jewish state.

This Palestinian entitlement, validated by the international law relating to fundamental human rights prohibiting all forms of discrimination, and especially structural forms embedded in law that discriminate on the basis of race and religion. The government of Israel, reinforced by its Supreme Court, endorses the view that only Jews can possess Israeli nationality that is the basis of a range of crucial rights under Israeli law. What is more Jews have Israeli nationality even if lacking any link to Israel and wherever they are located, while Palestinians (and other religious and ethnic minorities) are denied Israeli nationality (although given Israeli citizenship) even if indigenous to historic Palestine and to the territory under the sovereign control of the state of Israel.  

A secondary form of fragmentation is between this minority in Israel and the rest of the Palestinian corpus. The dominant international subjectivity relating to the conflict has so far erased this minority from its imaginary of peace for the two peoples, or from any sense that Palestinian human rights in Israel should be internationally implemented in whatever arrangements are eventually negotiated or emerges via struggle. As matters now stand, the Palestinian minority in Israel is unrepresented at the diplomatic level and lacks any vehicle for the expression of its grievances.

–Occupied Palestine and the Palestinian Diaspora (refugees and enforced exile). Among the most debilitating forms of fragmentation is the effort by Israel and its supporters to deny Palestinian refugees and Palestinians living in the diaspora) their right of return as confirmed by GA Resolution 184? There are between 4.5 million and 5.5 million Palestinians who are either refugees or living in the diaspora, as well as about 1.4 million resident in the West Bank and 1.6 million in Gaza.

The diplomatic discourse has been long shaped by reference to the two state mantra. This includes the reductive belief that the essence of a peaceful future for the two peoples depends on working out the intricacies of ‘land for peace.’ In other words, the dispute is false categorized as almost exclusively about territory and borders (along with the future of Jerusalem), and not about people. There is a tacit understanding that seems to include the officials of the Palestinian Authority to the effect that Palestinians refugee rights will be ‘handled’ via compensation and the right of return, not to the place of original dispossession, but to territory eventually placed under Palestinian sovereignty.

Again the same disparity as between the two sides is encoded in the diplomacy of ‘the peace process,’ ever more so during the twenty years shaped by the Oslo framework. The Israel propaganda campaign was designed to make it appear to be a deal breaker for the Palestinian to insist on full rights of repatriation as it would allegedly entail the end of the promise of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Yet such a posture toward refugees and the Palestinian diaspora cruelly consigns several million Palestinians to a permanent limbo, in effect repudiating the idea that the Palestinians are a genuine ‘people’ while absolutizing the Jews as a people of global scope. Such a dismissal of the claims of Palestinian refugees also flies in the face of the right of return specifically affirmed in relation to Palestine by the UN General Assembly in Resolution 194, and more generally supported by Article 13 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Two Warring Realms of the Occupation of Palestine: the Palestine Authority versus Hamas. Again Israel and its supporters have been able to drive an ideological wedge between the Palestinians enduring occupation since 1967. With an initial effort to discredit the Palestine Liberation Organzation that had achieved control over a unified and robust Palestine national movement, Israel actually encouraged the initial emergence of Hamas as a radical and fragmenting alternative to the PLO when it was founded in the course of the First Intifada. Israel of course later strongly repudiated Hamas when it began to carry armed struggle to pre-1967 Israel, most notoriously engaging in suicide bombings in Israel that involved indiscriminate attacks on civilians, a tactic repudiated in recent years.

Despite Hamas entering into the political life of occupied Palestine with American, and winning an internationally supervised election in 2006, and taking control of Gaza in 2007, it has continued to be categorized as ‘a terrorist organization’ that is given no international status. This terrorist designation is also relied upon to impose a blockade on Gaza that is a flagrant form of collective punishment in direct violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Palestine Authority centered in Ramallah has also, despite occasional rhetoric to the contrary, refused to treat Hamas as a legitimate governing authority or to allow Hamas to operate as a legitimate political presence in the West Bank and Jerusalem or to insist on the inclusion of Hamas in international negotiations addressing the future of the Palestinian people. This refusal has persisted despite the more conciliatory tone of Hamas since 2009 when its leader, Khaled Meshaal, announced a shift in the organization’s goals: an acceptance of Israel as a state beside Palestine as a state provided a full withdrawal to 1967 borders and implementation of the right of return for refugees, and a discontinuation by Hamas of a movement based on armed struggle. Mashel also gave further reassurances of moderation by an indication that earlier goals of liberating the whole of historic Palestine, as proclaimed in its Charter, were a matter of history that was no longer descriptive of its political program.

In effect, the territorial fragmentation of occupied Palestine is reinforced by ideological fragmentation, seeking to somewhat authenticate and privilege the secular and accommodating leadership provided by the PA while repudiating the Islamic orientation of Hamas. In this regard, the polarization in such countries as Turkey and Egypt is cynically reproduced in Palestine as part of Israel’s overall occupation strategy. This includes a concerted effort by Israel to make it appear that material living conditions for Palestinians are much better if the Palestinian leadership cooperates with the Israeli occupiers than if it continues to rely on a national movement of liberation and refuses to play the Oslo game.

The Israeli propaganda position on Hamas has emphasized the rocket attacks on Israel launched from within Gaza. There is much ambiguity and manipulation of the timeline relating to the rockets in interaction with various forms of Israeli violent intrusion. We do know that the casualties during the period of Hamas control of Gaza have been exceedingly one-sided, with Israel doing most of the killing, and Palestinians almost all of the dying. We also know that when ceasefires have been established between Israel and Gaza, there was a good record of compliance on the Hamas side, and that it was Israel that provocatively broke the truce, and then launched major military operations in 2008-09 and 2012 on a defenseless and completely vulnerable population.

Cantonization and the Separation Wall: Fragmenting the West Bank. A further Israeli tactic of fragmentation is to make it difficult for Palestinians to sustain a normal and coherent life. The several hundred check points throughout the West Bank serious disrupt mobility for the Palestinians, and make it far easier for Palestinians to avoid delay and humiliation. It is better for them to remain contained within their villages, a restrictive life reinforced by periodic closures and curfews that are extremely disruptive. Vulnerability is accentuated by nighttime arrests, especially of young male Palestinians, 60% of whom have been detained in prisons before they reach the age of 25, and the sense that Israeli violence, whether issuing from the IDF or the settlers enjoys impunity, and often is jointly carried out.

The Oslo framework not only delegated to the PA the role of maintaining ‘security’ in Palestinian towns and cities, but bisected the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C, with Israeli retaining a residual security right throughout occupied Palestine. Area C, where most of the settlements are located, is over 60% of the West Bank, and is under exclusive control of Israel.
This fragmentation at the core of the Oslo framework has been a key element
in perpetuating Palestinian misery.

The fragmentation in administration is rigid and discriminatory, allowing Israeli settlers the benefits of Israel’s rule of law, while subjecting Palestinians to military administration with extremely limited rights, and even the denial of a right to enjoy the benefit of rights. Israel also insists that since it views the West Bank as disputed territory rather than ‘occupied’ it is not legally obliged to respect international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions. This fragmentation between Israeli settlers and Palestinian residents is so severe that it has been increasingly understood in international circles as a form of apartheid, which the Rome Statute governing the International Criminal Court denominates as one type of ‘crime against humanity.’ 

The Separation Wall is an obvious means of separating Palestinians from each other and from their land. It was declared in 2004 to be a violation of international law by a super majority of 14-1 in the International Court of Justice, but to no avail, as Israel has defied this near unanimous reading of international law by the highest judicial body in the UN, and yet suffered no adverse consequences. In some West Bank communities Palestinians are surrounded by the wall and in others Palestinian farmers can only gain access to and from their land at appointed times when wall gates are opened.

Fragmentation and Self-Determination  The pervasiveness of fragmentation is one reason why there is so little belief that the recently revived peace process is anything more than one more turn of the wheel, allowing Israel to proceed with its policies designed to take as much of what remains of Palestine as it wants so as to realize its own conception of Jewish self-determination. Just as Israel refuses to restrict the Jewish right of return, so it also refuses to delimit its boundaries. When it negotiates internationally it insists on even more prerogatives under the banner of security and anti-terrorism. Israel approach such negotiations as a zero-sum dynamic of gain for itself, loss for Palestine, a process hidden from view by the politics of deflection and undermining the Palestinian capacity for coherent resistance by the politics of fragmentation.
 

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* There are two issues posed, beyond the scope of this post, that bear on Palestinian self-determination emanating from the Balfour Declaration and the ensuing British mandatory role in Palestine: (1) to what extent does “a national home for the Jewish people” imply a valid right of self-determination, as implemented by the establishment of the state of Israel? Does the idea of ‘a national home’ encompass statehood? (2) to what extent does the colonialist nature of the Balfour Declaration and the League mandate system invalidate any actions taken?

Norman Finkelstein: Interview with on the Mideast 

Then, in a sense, the coup in Egypt has strengthened Israel’s hand.

It’s strengthened them in two ways. Number one, Sisi is just another version of Mubarak, which was one of Israel’s main allies. And secondly, the Palestinian organization Hamas made a tactical error by putting all of their eggs in the Muslim Brotherhood basket, and now the Muslim Brotherhood has been defeated.

Do you mean that the position they have taken during the Syrian conflict on the side of the Turkey-Egypt axis was a major strategic mistake on their side?

So double mistake, because Egypt completely collapsed and Turkey now sees more common interest with Israel to get in the Syrian conflict, so Turkey right now is in the process of completely restoring relations with Israel. At the expense of the Palestinians, they will work with Israel in order to get their way in Syria.

Do you really think that is the position Turkey is going to take?

All the reports are that Israel and Turkey are healing all of their divisions, and that Turkey now regards Syria as the bigger issue than the Palestinians. And then Israel and Turkey are basically agreed on Syria.

How about recent comments that Hamas, right now, is again trying to realign its position and trying to get close to Iran and Hezbollah. Do you see that, or it’s just a speculation?

I think they will try, but the fact that they were so disloyal, the support that they are going to get from Hezbollah and Iran will be significantly less.

Hamas is desperate for anything right now so they don’t have that many options. And there’s an expression in English, beggars can’t be choosers, and Hamas is in the situation of a beggar now and it doesn’t have that many choices.

In Egypt, right now, the Muslim Brotherhood is out of the equation. Is the current Egyptian administration going to choose not to do anything regarding the Palestinian issue?

Right, they’re going to do more than nothing, they’re going to be a positive, negative force.

Then what’s happening to Gaza right now is an indication of that?

What they’re trying to do in Gaza is two things. They want to make the situation economically intolerable so that the people of Gaza overthrow Hamas. And also they want to reestablish Palestinian Authority control, so one of the things they’re trying to do right now is reestablish Palestinian Authority control of the Rafah entry. So basically just like Sisi sees now a historic opportunity to destroy the Brotherhood, the Palestinian Authority sees a historic opportunity to destroy Hamas. Both of them think, and they may be right, that these are big opportunities.

What are the prospects of that?

A lot of it is very hard to say. So long as the attention is distracted on Syria, Sisi could do pretty much anything he wants. Nobody’s stopping him.

So the Syrian conflict is a game changer in the entire region.

Syria is a complete disaster, total disaster.

WAR CRIMINAL PERES WELCOMED AT ICJ IN THE HAGUE http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=61997
President Peres meets with the President and judges of the ICJ in The Hague
 ICJ President Tomka told President Peres, "We are honored by your presence.
Peace can be based on justice and solid legal foundations, whenever we solve
disputes between sovereign states we always emphasize that the most
efficient way is through negotiations. We wish your people peace and justice
in a safe and secure environment with peace with your neighbors"

Why are Israel’s worst racists welcome in European Parliament?
David Cronin, Electronic Intifada, Sep 27 2013

Anyone who has examined Zionist propaganda critically will have noticed a trend of depicting Israel as a liberal paradise. Among the myths manufactured by this PR machine are that Tel Aviv is the world’s most gay-friendly city; that Israel is a global leader in protecting the environment; and that Palestinians have never had it so good.The memo telling Israel’s diplomats and their allies to “accentuate the positive” has been mislaid in Brussels, judging by an event held earlier this month. During the event, a few members of the European Parliament teamed up with some of Israel’s most reactionary politicians. David Rotem, a representative of Israel Beitenu, was guest of “honor” at a conference in the Parliament’s headquarters. He was a curious choice for a discussion about those controversial EU guidelines on ending aid to firms and institutions active in the settlements Israel has built in the occupied West Bank in defiance of international law. Far from being a slick spin-doctor, Rotem is overtly racist in his pronouncements. While two MEPs have landed themselves in hot water this year for applying the term “bongo bongo” to Africans, Rotem is able to make vile statements about Palestinians without fear of censure. he has said:

Every Jewish community needs at least one Arab, otherwise, who will repair my fridge when it breaks down on the Sabbath?

Perhaps the only commendable thing about Rotem is that he is more honest than many of his peers about the fact that Israel practices a form of apartheid. he has said:

Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, not a state of all its citizens.

Since joining the Knesset in 2007, Rotem has sponsored a number of bills designed to make Israeli apartheid more extreme. Among them were a bill requiring that citizens of Israel take an oath of allegiance to a “Jewish and democratic state.” He has also tried to exclude parties comprised of Palestinians living in present-day Israel from the Knesset and to ban public funding of organizations deemed not to respect Israeli “values”. The latter bill was originally known as the “Nakba law.” Rotem has been a staunch defender, too, of Israeli government efforts to uproot Palestinian Bedouins from their villages in the Negev (Naqab). And he has argued that communities in the Galilee and the Negev should be allowed to bar residents on grounds of race and religion. It’s important to note that Rotem is not a marginal figure in Israeli politics. On the contrary, he chairs the Knesset’s committee on constitution, law and justice. He has used that position to hurl insults at political opponents. Two years ago, he told a member of that committee:

Get out of here. You are not even an animal.

Himself living in the Israeli settlement of Efrat, Rotem has put forward a bill to copper-fasten the state’s “obligation” to invest in expanding settlements. He was not the only settler invited to the European Parliament this month. Gershon Mesika, head of the Shomron Regional Council for Israeli settlers in the West Bank, also addressed its conference. While all Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, Mesika has also registered his contempt for Israeli government decisions limiting the settlements’ growth. In 2009, he ripped up papers from then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordering a freeze on construction in some settlements. The European Friends of Israel, a cross-party alliance of MEPs, was involved in the recent conference. Its embrace of hardcore racists like Rotem jars with the cuddlier image that it has been trying to project of Israel so far this year. The EFI kicked off 2013 by celebrating Israel as a caring and open-minded place, with events dedicated to Israel’s humanitarian aid program and the protests against Netanyahu’s economic policies. Is rolling out a red carpet to Rotem a sign of desperation? I’m not sure if it is. The EU’s new guidelines aren’t simply opposed by Israeli settlers. Jackass Kerry is also demanding that the guidelines be withdrawn. You don’t need to have a doctorate in international relations to know that the EU is often servile towards the US. Jackass is more guarded and diplomatic in his choice of words than Rotem. But they are both striving to bolster a system that privileges one group of people and dehumanizes another.

SYRIA Palestinians Attack Al Jazeera Crew in Occupied Palestine Syria War 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V-VW1A3i0Q

SYRIA Palestinian Hang Doll Emir Of Qatar 'Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa' in Support For Syria Syria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=743MRzUb49o

 Israel: ‘The Worst State on the Planet’
On September 21, 2013, the Bilzerian Report, published as investigative study, calling Israel; The Worst Nation On the Planet, based on the following facts.
1. Between 2001 and 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Council sanctioned Israel more than any other nation on the planet.2. Racism against native Muslims, Christians and even fellow Jews. When black African Jews returned to Israel in 1969 under the Right of Return Act, the government ruled that they were not real Jews and therefore did not qualify for citizenship or any legal status. The black Hebrews were also denied state benefits and work permits. To this day black Jews are still not accepted by the Jewish community in Israel. Racial slurs, insults, and discrimination in housing rentals are commonplace.3. In Israel, it is against the law for a gentile to marry a Jew. Amnesty International has condemned their marriage policy as discriminatory towards Arabs. Under the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, Israel bars the immigrant reunification for family members of citizens of Israel and residents of Israeli-occupied territories in Palestine. Meaning that Palestinian families can be separated, legally.4. The Zionist regime has initiated wars, massacres and have used chemical weapons against its neighboring Arab nations. In 1982, the Israeli government allowed the massacre of more than 800 Palestinians in two refugee camps in occupied Beirut. In 2008, the Israeli government fired white phosphorous weapons into civilian areas in Gaza.5. Israeli leaders have no shame in lying to the world. For example, in 1992, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu falsely claimed that Iran was 3-5 years away from a nuclear weapon. Then in 2002, he publicly lied to America’s Congress about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction. Then in 2012, Netanyahu lied to the American people once again by claiming that Iran was only months away from nuclear weapons.6. Today, the Jewish Lobby is at its old tricks again by publicly pushing America to war with Syria. In fact, the push is so one-sided that many are now calling this an Jewish-lobby war. Almost every major Jewish group in America supports the invasion, and Obama actually recruited more than 250 Israel lobbyists to force undecided congressmen to vote for war.7. The Zionist entity is America’s greatest enemy. The US government has labeled Israel one of its greatest spy threats on numerous occasions, and for good reason. Israel has been caught spying on America, stealing US secrets, attacking American targets, and stealing US nuclear technology and equipment several times.8. Israel, the world’s loudest proponent of holocaust awareness, is actually a holocaust denier of non-Jewish people.9. Even though Israel receives more foreign aid than any other nation on the planet, it is one of the stingiest developed countries in the world. Israel is one of the richest countries in the world with 10,000 millionaires, but gives nearly 10 times less than the world average and gives the 4th least of any developed nation per capita, only barely beating out much poorer countries like Poland, Hungary, and Turkey. So while Israel took $12-17 billion in US aid, it only gave $141 million in foreign aid to nations in need of assistance in 2010.
10. The 9/11 was an Israeli project meant to increase American support for Israel against the Muslim world.
“The above mentioned instances of Israeli racism, terrorism, subterfuge, etc… just scratch the surface of the totality of the destruction that the state of Israel has brought to this world. In fact, Israel’s founding was marred by Jewish terrorist attacks against British and European targets, and the massacre and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. At least repressive nations such as North Korea and Iran, which do far less international and domestic harm than Israel, do not claim to be the only free democracies in their region that shares Western values. The hypocrisy and lies of Israel almost surpass its devastation,” concluded the report.

Rouhani’s Jewish MP escort to UN irks inuman Israel
 The Jewish parliament member set to accompany Iranian President Hasan Rouhani to a UN summit in New York next week is a critic of Israel who has dubbed its treatment of Palestinians “inhuman.” Siamak Moreh Sedgh, a medical doctor and the sole Jewish member of Iran’s 290-strong Majlis (parliament), told Reuters in May 2008 that Iran’s Jewish community would not mark Israel’s 60th anniversary. “We are in complete disagreement with the behavior of Israel,” Moreh Sedgh told the news agency, adding that in Gaza Israel displayed “anti-human behavior… they kill innocent people.” Prior to his selection as the Jewish representative to parliament in March 2008, Moreh Sedgh headed the country’s Jewish community, estimated at 9,000 according to a 2012 census. Five seats in parliament are reserved for Iran’s recognized religious minorities — one for a Jew, two for Christians and two for Zoroastrians. In an interview with Russia Today in 2010, Moreh Sedgh denied that anti-Semitism existed in Iran, claiming it was a uniquely European phenomenon. He highlighted the affiliation of the country’s Jews to Iranian culture, noting that he had served 12 months at the front during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. “Jews are safe in Iran. That’s true. Nobody needs guards. There has never been a single instance of anti-Semitism in Iranian society. This phenomenon belongs to the European, Christian world. There is no anti-Semitic sentiment in Iran. We have no attacks on synagogues or cemeteries as happens in Paris. Just so you know, there are 15 synagogues in Tehran,” he said.

London "terrorism experts" have strong links to Israeli establishment by David Cronin
 Links between “radicalization” school and supporters of Israeli apartheid are never spelled out in press...
 Duping the media isn’t difficult. All you have to do is give yourself an impressive title and claim to be working for a prestigious institution.The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) in King’s College London excels at such deception. Its staff are treated as authoritative sources on “terrorism,” without there being any explanation of their connections to the Israeli establishment.Though headquartered in England, the ICSR was established as a partnership between the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a few other universities. Each year the Herzliya center hosts a major conference on “security,” at which powerful business and political figures discuss how to reinforce Israeli apartheid.At the 2003 conference, Benjamin Netanyahu, then Israel’s finance minister, tried to defend the wall being built in the West Bank by contending it would help prevent a “demographic spill-over” of Palestinians into present-day Israel.[[[Shiraz Maher, a “senior research fellow,” at the ICSR has been in demand recently as a pundit on Syria.]]]]] [[[During an appearance on Al Jazeera, he denounced the Iranian government-financed Press TV and Russia Today as “propaganda channels.”]]]]Echoing Israel
His description wasn’t inaccurate (numerous media outlets warrant the same label). But it is telling that he implied those hostile to a Western assault on Damascus were resorting to propaganda, when he regularly parrots Israeli propaganda himself.In a blog he writes for the right-wing British magazine The Spectator, Maher has praised Netanyahu for bombing Syria earlier this year. In other posts, he has stated it was a “palpable falsity” to call Israel an apartheid state (he didn’t bother elaborating). And he has urged the European Union to blacklist Hizballah as a “terrorist organization,” echoing a demand made repeatedly by Israel.I contacted Maher to ask how he defined terrorism and if he accepted that Israel resorted to state terrorism. “I don’t see where the question is coming from,” he replied. “It’s a fairly technical legal question.”When I asked him why he never drew attention to his Herzliya links in his articles or TV appearances, Maher said that the ICSR has “no financial relationship” with the Israeli center. Yet he would not give any details on how the ICSR is funded, telling me that I would have to put any such questions on matters to John Bew, the center’s director.Bew did not respond to my requests for a copy of the ICSR’s accounts. Yet Bew is known to answer requests from pro-establishment journalists. In July, he was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 program “Thinking Allowed,” where he stated “anyone who grew up in Northern Ireland, like I did, will know terrorism is not a concept” but an “objective fact.”The slot featuring Bew lasted for a full 26 minutes. That would be considered a long time by many broadcast journalists, yet neither Bew nor the presenter availed of the opportunity to explain that he is linked to an Israeli university supportive of state violence. (Bew, incidentally, will soon leave London for Washington, where he will take up the “Henry Kissinger chair in foreign policy” at the Library of Congress.)Full picture?
The ICSR is registered as a charity and donations to it are tax deductible. Yet it is hard to believe that the information it has supplied to Britain’s Charity Commission gives a full picture of its resources. This indicates that it had an income of £20,000 ($32,000) in the financial year which ended in August 2012 and that it spent only £5,000 during that year.It appears that two of the main donors to the ICSR are businessmen Edward Atkin and Henry Sweetbaum.Atkin, who amassed a fortune from manufacturing teats for baby bottles, sponsors a scholarship scheme that brings bright young students from Israel and Arab countries to London.Neutral?
According to the ICSR’s website, the students are able to discuss how to “further peace and understanding” in a “politically neutral environment.” This is pure spin: projects of this nature are regarded as “normalization” by many Palestinians because they promote cooperation in a situation of inequality and injustice, without acknowledging that Israel practices a form of apartheid.It is doubtful whether or not Atkin is “politically neutral” himself (can any wealthy entrepreneur really be apolitical?). He is also a donor to the Community Security Trust, a group that has engaged in a witch-hunt against Jewish activists who speak out against Israeli apartheid.As my colleague Asa Winstanley revealed in 2011, the CST has strayed from its official remit of monitoring anti-Semitic incidents to snoop on left-wing Jews, whom it has branded “extremist,” a term it normally reserves for the far-right.The ICSR was founded in 2007 by Henry Sweetbaum, a former head of the building supplies firm Wickes Companies. Sweetbaum is named as a donor to King’s College London in that university’s latest annual report. He also remains the ICSR’s chairperson.Attempts by the ICSR’s staff to distance themselves from Israel lack credibility. Boaz Ganor from the Herzliya center was another founding member of the ICSR and is still one of its official “partners.” Ganor has encouraged Israel to commit even more war crimes than it already has: in a 2006 opinion piece, he advocated both “pre-emptive and reactive strikes” against “Palestinian terror.” Civilians have been the main victims when Israel has undertaken those kinds of “strikes.”
Given they are in a “partnership” with a man who openly calls for murder of people based on the racial group to which they belong, perhaps the media should be a little more probing the next time it gives a platform to the ICSR and its “experts.”

Iran Increases Aid to PFLP Thanks to Syria Stance http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/09/iran-pflp-gaza-palestine-syria.html
 High-level PFLP sources at home and abroad revealed to Al-Monitor that Iran has resumed its financial and military support for the group in recent months in order to strengthen its alliance with the “Palestinian resistance forces” and not limit itself to only supporting Islamist movements such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Al-Monitor that several meetings were held between the PFLP leadership abroad and Iranian officials in Beirut, Damascus and Tehran under the auspices of Lebanonese Hezbollah. Those meetings resulted in reviving direct support to the PFLP.“Following the resumption of Iranian support, there will soon be a dramatic increase in the strength of the PFLP’s military wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, after the internal reorganization of the group is completed,” the sources said.The PFLP has come out in support of the Syrian regime and Hezbollah’s position on the Syrian crisis. PFLP officials have made pro-regime statements and held Gaza rallies in which participants raised pictures of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Abu Ahmad Fouad, a PFLP political-bureau member and former PFLP military official, said that the group might retaliate toward Israel if the United States bombs Syria. “We are not exaggerating our capabilities, but we will be in the anti-occupation and anti-aggression resistance trench. We will use the available resources, and we will try to gather the energy of all forces and factions in the face of this aggression, mainly against the Zionist occupation. Our capabilities are found in our occupied country and we will be on the side of our brothers in Hezbollah if they gave us a role in resisting the occupation,” Fouad said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen TV last week. Rabah Muhanna, a PFLP official in Gaza, said that the group intersects with Hezbollah, Iran and Syria because the PFLP supports “resisting the Israeli occupation” and Hezbollah, Iran and Syria “support the various Palestinian resistance forces, including the PFLP.” In a discussion with Al-Monitor, Muhanna did not confirm nor deny the return of Iranian financial and military support for the PFLP. Al-Monitor met with Abu Jamal, the official spokesman for the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, to understand the nature of Iran’s support. “We call on all countries of the world to provide us with financial and military support and we do not oppose it at all,” he said, denying a change in Iranian support for the PFLP. “We have received and continue to receive military training for our personnel in Damascus and Beirut at the hands of Hezbollah trainers, and maybe also from Iran, but I have no information on any other type of support,” Abu Jamal added.

IsraHell,The Ultimate Mission will be held on October 21st thru October 28, 2013 http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=61910
http://www.israellawcenter.org/page.asp?id=330
 Following the overwhelming successes of our twenty prior "Ultimate Missions" to Israel, Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center will host another high-impact tour of Israel in October 2013.
 The Ultimate Mission is a first hand investigation of the challenges of the terrorist threat to Israel's survival in the wake of the war against Hezbollah and Hamas take over of Gaza..Shurat HaDin is inviting doctors, attorneys, accountants,programmers and other professionals from around the world to participate in an intensive and action-packed series of briefings and field tours with Israeli security, military and intelligence officials. The Ultimate Mission will explore the strategic dangers to the Jewish state from Arab violence and Islamic extremism.Participants will experience a dynamic, hands-on and intensive eight day investigation of Israel's struggle for security and survival in the Middle East today. See first-hand the continuing threat that Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran are leveling against the Jewish State. Visit the targeted community of Sderot and the Gaza border crossingMission participants will receive briefings from senior commanders of Israel's intelligence and security services,as well as the other strategic decision-makers who shape and lead Israel's multifaceted war on terrorism.The Mission will also present a rich program of excitingrecreational and cultural events. The eight day program will include the following highlights:• Visit to the Research Center for Atomic Energy• Tour of the UN base on the Syrian border• Exclusive visits to IDF bases• Behind-the-scenes tour of Ben Gurion Airport• Watch Hezbollah on the Lebanese border• An insider's tour of the security fence• Briefing by intelligence officials and security agents• Special exhibition of the Flotilla boats detained by the Israeli Navy in IDF navy base.• A visit to the Druze village, where thousands of Syrian civilians breached the Israel-Syria border and infiltrated into Israel.• Briefing at the Prime Minister's Office• [[[ATVs tour on the Syrian border• BBQ on the Lebanese border•]]]] Five stars hotels and unforgettable meal after meal at the best restaurants in Israel• Optional extension to Historic Petra, Jordan.• a Shabbat enjoying the rich religious and historic wonders of Jerusalem's Old City.According to Shurat HaDin Director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner:
"The crisis over Syrian chemical weapons, the chaos in Egypt, the escalating Hezbullah missile threat and the Iranian nuclear program have created anew reality for Israel's military and security services that the October Mission 2013 will explore in depth. The briefings by the intelligenceand IDF officials amazed our earlier groups as they clearly exhibited the extreme challenges Israel is facing in the on-going war against the terrorists. No other tour has ever presented the hard-core realities of Israel's struggle for survival like the Ultimate Mission."
[ed notes:LOL the existential threat is so dangerous on israhells non defined borders that they are going to throw bbq's and sip shabats,cruise in atv's and watch Hezbollah LMAO!more on shurat hadin law center here...
ISRAHELL,ZIONISTS,AND THE FRAUDULENT LAWSUIT TARGETTING SYRIA.  http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2012/12/israhellzionistsand-fraudulent-lawsuit.htmlZIONAZI ISRAHELLI LAW CENTER USES INTIMIDATION TACTICS TO SUPRESS BOYCOTTS AGAINST APARTHEID STATE http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2013/04/zionazi-israhelli-center-uses.html

VENEZUELA PRESIDENT MADURO DENOUNCES UN,TURKEY,AND ISRAEL
http://www.albatv.org/Desde-la-ONU-y-Turquia-se-preparan.html
"They will mount an operation against Syria at the United Nations and will make a provocation from Turkey. "Attention to the world!,they  will match two events wich will be fulfilled by the orders from the Pentagon to go to war in Syria"stated the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro according to evidence allegedly confirmed by different sources in the world, after the inauguration of the school national Bolivarian Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, in tribute to the eternal Commander.He said that the Imperial forces have changed tactics with provocations on the border with Turkey, that is obligated to the North Atlantic organization, NATO, to interfere, since the Turkish nation belongs to the concerned Agency.

"We call upon the people of Turkey from the peoples of  Venezuela's Chavez, to warn the Turkish Government  not to start a war between peoples", said Maduro.

He rejected the report that announced the Secretary General of the Organization of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.  [[[["Why the Secretary-General of the United Nations is given a position as Prosecutor and judge of the peoples of the world and yet is at the service of strategies of war, instead of being in the service of peace?]]]]"[[[[[He criticized the actions and weapons of nuclear armed Israel wich launched wars against the people of Palestine. "Who punishes them?,they used cluster bombs that are forbidden in the world against Palestinian children." Who denounces that? ", he reflected."]]]]He emphasized that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, agrees with Syria, to deliver all of the chemical weapons that have, but wondered when would Israel deliver its own ammunitions. He said that the South American nation is in accordance with efforts to eliminate all chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and the world disarmament to create a community of peace and coexistence.

Venezuela appreciates efforts of Syria peace

The National President congratulated his counterpart of the Federation of Russia, Vladimir Putin, for having played a stellar role to ensure peace the Arab people of Syria and thus prevent a third world war. It also expressed that since the Bolivarian Alliance for the peoples of our America (Alba), be supported all the initiatives to be undertaken since the European nation for global harmony.

Source: Press MPPRE

500 Academics urge EU not to Water-Down Settlement Policy http://www.shoah.org.uk/2013/09/17/500-academics-urge-eu-not-to-water-down-settlement-policy/
by Saed Bannoura




 Over 500 academics, including researchers from 13 European Union member states, have today written to the EU’s head of Foreign Policy, urging the EU not to water down its new guidelines preventing EU funding from being awarded to Israeli projects and entities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem . Americans For Peace NowThe “Letter by academic researchers to the EU regarding the participation of Israeli settlements in EU research programs” has been organised by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) and its French sister organisation the Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP).The EU recently announced new guidelines that should prevent Israeli universities, companies and projects based in settlements from receiving EU funding. This important policy change is the result of grassroots campaigning across Europe, including a letter to the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton signed by 250 academics from across Europe last year. The intention of the guidelines is to ensure that the EU’s own institutions respect the obligation not to recognize Israeli sovereignty in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, including the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip as well as the Syrian Golan Heights.Michael Deas, Coordinator in Europe for the Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC), explained:“These guidelines show that grassroots civil society pressure is forcing the European Union to acknowledge its legal responsibility to not recognize Israel’s regime of occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people and to end some aspects of its deep complicity in maintaining this illegal and criminal system.”The new guidelines have been welcomed by students and conscientious academics in Palestine and Europe who have been campaigning against EU-funded joint projects between European universities and illegal settlement companies such as cosmetics firm Ahava.Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories Ltd, whose factory is located in the illegal Mitzpe Shalem settlement in the occupied West Bank, has participated in five projects under the current Framework Programme 7 (FP7), and is even the co-ordinator of two of them. These projects have a total value of €36,033,269, of which the EU has contributed €25,245,718.Now Palestine solidarity organisations fear that Israel and the US are applying pressure on the EU to drop the new guidelines, or to water them down to the point where they become meaningless, ahead of negotiations on Israel’s participation in the upcoming Horizon 2020 EU research funding program. John Kerry has called for the guidelines to be dropped and a US official has claimed that there is an “openness” to this request among EU officials. The intensive round of talks between the EU and the Israelis about Israel’s participation in the Horizon 2020programme opens this Thursday September 12th. The letter is addressed to Baroness Ashton in her capacity asHigh Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and SecurityPolicy.It says, “As academic researchers, many of whom have been in receipt of EU research funding, we call upon the EU to implement its new guidelines in full and to ensure that projects, companies and institutions located in illegal Israeli settlements are not eligible for EU research funding.”Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, Chair of BRICUP, said “Just when we thought that the EU was going to live up to its international human rights responsibilities, it seems they are in danger of going weak at the knees again. How can they even contemplate funding Israeli activities taking place over the Green Line in illegal settlements? A measure of the outrage that this has provoked is the fact that in less than 2 days signatures to this letter have flooded in from over 500 academics.”

Ivar Ekelund of AURDIP said: “At long last the EU has decided to abide by its own principles. It should go without saying that the European taxpayer should not support activities interritorieswhich are illegally occupied and settled. It is a wonder that a directive is needed to state the obvious, and even more of a wonder that the EU appears ready to yield to pressure to step back from this very modest beginning.” How can Europe lecture others on international law if it turns a blind eye to ongoing violations on its own doorstep? As scientists, we are part of an international community, and we know that such a community can only be supported by fairness and the rule of law.” The full text of the letter is as follows:Dear Catherine Ashton cc: Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn We are writing to you with regard to the guidelines published recently by the EU on the eligibility of Israeli bodies for EU financial support which are designed to prevent projects in illegal Israeli settlements from receiving funding from the European Research Council and the forthcoming Horizon 2020 EU research funding programme.The guidelines were widely welcomed by researchers and citizens who had been deeply concerned that the EU was encouraging and funding collaboration between European universities and Israeli companies such as Ahava that operate in illegal Israeli settlements. Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law and their continued existence and expansion lead to severe violations of the human rights of Palestinians.We understand that negotiations on Israel’s participation in the Horizon 2020 program will begin on Thursday, and we have read that you hope to find ways to implement the new guidelines “sensitively”. We have also read that US Secretary of State John Kerry is pressuring the EU to repeal the new guidelines.As academic researchers, many of whom have been in receipt of EU research funding, we call upon the EU to implement its new guidelines in full and to ensure that projects, companies and institutions located in illegal Israeli settlements are not eligible for EU research funding.

Army Hunting for Palestinian over Sidon Attack on Syrian Refugees 
 The Lebanese army was on Sunday pursuing a Palestinian who had injured two Syrians after opening fire on them in the southern city of Sidon. An army communique said Sunday that Louay Ahmed Mansour, known as Abu Khaled, fired around 22:40 pm Saturday at Syrian refugees residing in a building at Sidon's northern entrance. Two Syrians were lightly injured in the attack, the army said. A military patrol, which was dispatched to the area, contained the incident, the communique said. It added that the army was pursuing Mansour to arrest him and hand him over to the judicial authorities.

Aoun Warns of Jihadist Bid to Storm Syria's Bloudan: You're Either with Nusra or with Maalula 
 Free Patriotic Movement (CHRISTIAN)leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday revealed that the extremist al-Nusra Front is preparing to storm the mainly Christian Syrian town of Bloudan near Damascus, lashing out at those who are allegedly backing the jihadist group instead of supporting the historic neighboring town of Maalula. “We were surprised by a cable received by OTV and FPM's website saying '… amid the assault on the town of Maalula, al-Nusra Front is trying to invade the Christian town of Bloudan, and we are raising our voice because we need greater protection.'” “We fear that the Front might enter the town like what happened in Maalula and we fear being slaughtered. We hope our message will be delivered to the patriarchs, as al-Nusra Front is encircling the town and we have not seen any reinforcements or strong response until the moment and we can't but defend ourselves," Aoun quoted the cable's authors as saying. “We have contacted the patriarchs so that they in turn contact the Syrian officials,” Aoun said. Former French president Nicolas “Sarkozy said Christians have no place in the Middle East, but we don't want a protection for Christians, we rather want the implementation of human rights. They're saying that they're fighting in Syria for the sake of human rights, doesn't that include Christians? Are they discriminating between Muslims and Christians?” Aoun added. [[[[The FPM leader noted that “human rights involve the freedom of belief and the freedom of the human.” “We want protection from al-Nusra Front, which is killing and slaughtering,” he added]]]]. “In Egypt, Sunnis themselves did not tolerate the extremism and they quickly reevaluated their political and social situations, and we all have the right to identify the problem,” Aoun said, referring to the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi by a popular-backed military takeover. Aoun pointed out that rival Lebanese politicians have said that “no monasteries were torched in Maalula.” “Where did the published pictures come from? Let's suppose that they (Syrian rebels and jihadists) have not committed any violations, why did they enter Maalula? A funeral has been held for three victims and Greek Catholic Patriarch (Gregory III) Laham prayed for their souls,” Aoun noted.

[[[[[“We will not accept to remain silent over this issue and this is a series that started in Palestine and moved to Iraq and Egypt, where so many Copts decided to leave the country. But we will remain here and those justifying the deeds of those who are slaughtering them are spineless. They are not a resistance because resistance must start in the head first. They must stand on their feet and become aware of the problem instead of being anesthetized,” Aoun added, in reference to the Christians of the rival March 14 camp which supports the Syrian revolt]]]]]. [[[[[“There is the Nusra and there is Maalula. You can be either with the Nusra or with Maalula and the difference between the two is like the difference between hell and heaven, and those who choose hell can remain in hell,” he added. Noting that the rebel attack on Maalula was unjustified, Aoun said the town “can be monitored with the satellites of world powers and they can tell if they Syrian army is inside the town.”]]]] [[[[“Nothing justifies the presence of fighters in the town, as it was a peaceful town that was not taking part in the fighting and that did not harbor any fighters. I visited it and it contains monasteries. I visited the Mar Jerjes Monastery that they have torched,” he added, reminiscing his visit to Syria.]]]] 
[ed notes;also read... http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2012/10/aoun-political-accusation-must-stop-i.html
http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2013/08/fsa-terrorists-israel-join-forces-to.html
Aoun: Syria Facing International Aggression, Not Internal Revolution